Millennium Experience In November of 2000,
a gang under investigation for a few botched armored truck robberies
threw caution to the wind and went for a giant payday. The Millennium Experience,
held at the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, South East London, was the target.
The Millennium Experience shows off some of the most precious stones in
the world. The vast array of wealth on display attracted the would-be robbers to the Dome,
but their ineptitude would, once again, be their demise.
Lee Wenham Lee Wenham led the gang
of nine criminals. He owned Tong Farm, the gang's base of operations. Investigators believe that all
of their criminal enterprises branched from the farm. The police tracked stolen vehicles there
long before the robberies took place but decided to wait for a more significant charge to land.
The diamond heist wasn't their first attempted robbery. They tried to rob
multiple armored trucks before setting their sights on the Millenium Dome. On July 7 of 2000,
an armored truck left the depot carrying over 8 million pounds. The depot was 20 miles from
Tong Farm, close enough to suspect Wenham and his gang. The robbery was surprisingly well planned,
but it still didn't pan out for the crew of career criminals.
They started the robbery by blocking off the truck's path with another vehicle. When they
couldn't cut through to the cash in the back, they had another truck outfitted with a huge
spike crash into it. The guards were helpless at this point as the gang told them the vehicle
had explosives attached to it and would blow if the guards even blinked. On top of this,
they also cut the hydraulic cables, immobilizing the armored truck. After a couple of rams,
they had punctured the armor enough to claim their prize,
but just as they were about to taste success, the police showed up. Realizing it was over,
they executed their escape by boarding a speed boat and speeding off down the Medway river.
After all that planning and damage, the only thing they escaped with was their freedom.
The Vault The attention that Wenham
and his crew gained is what ultimately wrecked their plans. The police had constant surveillance
and followed Wenham to the Millennium Dome when it opened to the public in 2000. The Dome was
home to the Millennium Experience, an exhibition to celebrate the start of the new millennium. It
featured several exhibits and shows to entertain all of its patrons. There was art on display
everywhere and plays held in the performance area at the center of the Dome. Their own unique
show with 165 acrobats and music by Peter Gabriel was performed almost a thousand times that year.
After some financial troubles caused by low attendance put it in jeopardy,
the Dome had to rebrand. It was renamed the O2 arena in 2005 and, after some redevelopment,
was reopened in 2007 with a Bon Jovi concert. In 2017, they out-performed Madison square garden,
gaining the title of the busiest arena in the world.
The Target So what did Wenham's gang
have their sights set on? De Beers' Diamond collection was kept in an exhibit inside of
the Dome. The exhibition featured some of the most expensive gems in the world. One of these
precious gems was the Millenium Star—and no, it's not a silly mash-up of the Millenium Falcon and
the Death Star from Star Wars. It's the world's second-largest Grade D diamond. The Millenium Star
is a flawless, pear-shaped diamond, and its grade comes from its complete lack of color.
Here's a quick lesson in Diamond color grading for you. D
is the highest grade a diamond can be. That means it's completely colorless.
Most diamonds contain a faint yellow tint—the more prevalent the tint, the lower the grade.
The Millenium Star is insured for an astonishing $100 million making it a prime target for the
would-be jewel thieves. But the Star wasn't the only precious stone in the building. The exhibit
also included eleven blue diamonds, one of which was The Heart of Eternity. The Heart
exists in a class of rare colored diamonds. The De Beers Group purchased these gems over
the years to add to their collection. De Beers is an international corporation that specializes in
all things diamond. They have their hands in everything from the mining process to the
retail part of the industry. Founded in 1888, the De Beers Group controlled over 80% of the
diamond business and kept the monopoly going until the 21st century. The monopoly has since
crumbled to competition, and De Beers now controls about 30% of the world's diamond market today.
Building Suspicion The police hadn't taken
their eye off of Wenham and his crew since their previous attempted robberies. This attention
followed them to the Millenium Dome after police got a tip about the upcoming robbery. London's
Metropolitan Police had one of the most profitable robberies in history under their surveillance,
entrusting the case to the Flying Squad, a specialist unit also known as the robbery squad.
The Flying Squad is a branch of the Serious and Organized Crime Command and focuses solely on
robberies. With their eagle-eyed precision, this robbery was doomed to fail before it ever began.
There were a lot of unknown variables at the start of their investigation. They didn't know
a lot about the thieves' plan, but they were sure about one thing,
what the target was. The Flying Squad knew that the Wenham gang would go after the
priceless jewels. To make sure they didn't get nabbed due to some unforeseen trick,
the Flying Squad kept an Ace up their sleeve, but we'll reveal that later.
Three Times Under constant
surveillance, it was easy for the police to piece the Wenham gang's plan together.
They were seen in the water across from the Dome practicing with a speed boat,
proving that they would make their getaway on the Thames river. The Flying Squad determined
what days the robberies might be attempted. With this knowledge, they were able to alert the Dome's
management and set up preventative operations. The attempts began at the start of October.
They aborted their first attempt after their getaway speedboat malfunctioned. The second
attempt came right after the first but was called off because the tide was too
low. After analyzing all of their activities on top of their failed attempts, the investigators
realized the crew would make their escape at high tide. With this knowledge in hand,
they determined when the robbery would be attempted again by watching for high tide.
Smashing The gang's plan was like the opening
scene of a superhero movie—a semi-coordinated gang of would-be thieves crashes through the walls and
goes in loud. On November 7, at 9:30 am, the quiet morning was disrupted by a modified JCB Earth
Digger, which is like a BackHoe, crashing through the wall of the Millenium Dome. Four gang members,
decked out in body armor and gas masks, rode the battering ram through the wall. These members were
Aldo Ciarrocchi, Raymond Betson, William Cockram, and Robert Adams. They drove the JCB right up to
the money zone and went straight in. Once they made it inside, the gang all played their parts.
Ciarrocchi started throwing out smoke bombs while Cockram went straight for the reinforced
glass protecting the gems. This glass was very strong and capable of withstanding a 60-ton ram,
but the gang had planned for this. Cockram had a very high-powered nail gun that was
popular in jewelry robberies at the time. He used it to punch three holes in the glass,
weakening it so that Adams could smash it in with his sledgehammer.
It must have seemed like everything was going smoothly to the Wenham gang, right up until
they were swarmed by police and ordered to put their hands up. Had they snatched the jewels,
they planned to escape in the waiting speedboat. Riding the Thames River all
the way to a multi-million dollar payday. Remember that "Ace up their sleeve?" Well, before the gang
got anywhere near the Millenium Dome, the Flying Squad replaced all the diamonds with replicas.
If the robbers escaped, they'd be holding bags full of fake diamonds. So we wonder,
why not let them take the fake diamonds and arrest them once they were all in the speedboat?
Busted The plan to stop
the robbery was called Operation Magician. The police were beyond prepared for these
criminals and quickly stopped their plan with no casualties. They had replaced all the Dome
employees with armed officers and waited for the gang to make their move. Once the chaos started,
the officer's first priority was to deal with the grenade tosser and the driver
of the JCB. They surrounded the machine and ordered Raymond Betson to get down.
As Betson stepped down from the JCB, he said that he didn't have anything to do with the robbery and
worked at the Dome. However, the police saw right through the man's blatant lie and arrested him.
With two members in custody, the officers needed to apprehend the other two trying to break the
glass. They did so by tossing stun grenades in the room and swarming the two criminals in full
tactical gear. With that smooth arrest, Operation Magician was a success. Millman, the speedboat
driver, was scooped up on the dock by an ambush team before he even knew what was happening.
Of course, with all the evidence piling up, the police went and picked up Wenham later that day.
Media Frenzy Like sharks to bloody water,
the media swarmed the trial to soak up every piece of the story. During the trial, Cockram said,
"I couldn't believe how simple it was... It was a gift. I couldn't believe security was so bad."
According to Cockram, the body armor the crew was wearing was to protect them after
the fact when they went to sell the jewels. The jury came back with a guilty verdict after
a short deliberation. The Judge spoke to the crew, saying, "You played for very high stakes,
and you must have known perfectly well what the penalty would be if your enterprise did
not succeed." Betson and Cockram got 18 years, while Ciarrocchi and Adams got 15. Wenham was
sentenced to 13 years collectively for his crimes, and Millman died of cancer before the trial.
Real Mastermind With the sentencing out of the way,
there was one step left to wrap this story up with a nice little bow. The Flying Squad's
last target was a man named James Hurley, who just so happened to disappear right before the
raid. The Flying Squad believed he was the real mastermind behind the entire plot, not Wenham.
The police had evidence of him taking pictures of the Dome from a boat on the Thames and dubbed
him "The Boat Man." He was eventually located at Puerto Banus in Costa Del Sol
and arrested by Spanish police after a speed boat chase. Things weren't looking good for him
until the Crown Prosecution Service withdrew the extradition order. The prosecution didn't believe
there was anything to be gained by taking Hurley to trial after a similar case was thrown out.
Old Habits Old habits die hard,
as they say, and this rang true for Raymond Betson. In 2012, he was arrested after fumbling
his way through another robbery. Betson used a digger to rob a Loomis cash depot
by smashing the machine through the wall, reminiscent of his previous work. However,
he and his crew smashed through the wrong wall and found themselves in an empty warehouse. Then after
searching it and finding nothing, the criminals had to flee. Their getaway vehicle was found in
a field with a balaclava and hairnet nearby in the bushes. Police used these articles of clothing to
convict Betson with DNA evidence. In 2014, he was sentenced to another 13 years in prison.
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