Case of stolen luxury watches: a jackpot for Antwerp traffickers

The Antwerp jeweler Rafael D. (25) has just been arrested at the request of the French police. In his shop in the very chic Schuttershofstraat, he would have “polished”, cleaned to restore a new appearance of stolen luxury watches in order to be able to resell them later. His father Rubi, the former “godfather” of the Antwerp-Georgian mafia, was also arrested.

Both are suspected of being part of a large-scale international network of receivers, specializing in the large-scale resale of stolen luxury watches. This network was dismantled in the South of France. A total of nine people were arrested.

For several years, hundreds of watches, the value of which could vary from 10,000 to 400,000 euros, have been stolen, sometimes with violence or even sequestration, in several European cities.

The thieves sold their loot at half price to the presumed leader of this network, a 42-year-old Corsican, who then sold them at new price. The latter called on watchmakers and jewellers, including Rafael D. They made sure to remove the origin of these numbered luxury watches and repackaged them in packaging, thus falsifying their traceability.

The watches were sold both to “bona fide” customers and to drug traffickers who used the watches to launder drug money abroad, notably in Dubai, by buying real estate.

In all, 152 watches, 137,000 euros in cash, 3 vehicles and 3 kg of cocaine as well as blank certificates of authenticity and spare parts with non-visible serial numbers were found, hidden in France and Belgium.

In the 1990s, Rubi D. was considered one of the “godfathers” of the Georgian mafia, who ran the Falcon Square in Antwerp, flooded with counterfeit products. After the police chased the mafia out of the place, Rubi D. and his brother got into other ways of smuggling counterfeit goods and VAT fraud. In 2011, they were sentenced to 15 months in prison. The court then declared 9.5 million euros in criminal assets confiscated. Rafael D. was later implicated in cases of cigarette smuggling and the sale of stolen gold by Chechens to gold dealers. Today, Father D. runs a business in the diamond district, specializing in watches and jewelry.

Luxury watches, led by Rolex, have long been very popular, both with people who have become legally wealthy and in criminal circles. They’ve been popping up in the business for years, not only because mobsters love to wear them to show off their wealth, but also as a way of payment that’s easier and more discreet to move around than a bag full of cash. They can also be a bonus added to drugs or tickets to maintain good relations between sellers and buyers. Stolen, they are also easily put back on the market, especially if the watch in question is accompanied by an official certificate, for customers who are fed up with the queues to obtain a Rolex, object of supreme desire among all luxury brands.

In this criminal niche, Antwerp is doing well. It is common for objects stolen in France to end up there. In 2017, for example, the loot of Kim Kardashian’s robbers was sold and melted down in Antwerp. Other French investigations also resulted in Antwerp. Earlier this year, two gold traders were arrested on suspicion of receiving stolen gold in France.

Luxury watches, whether as currency or as bonuses, do not only circulate in the context of drug trafficking. They have just as much success in corruption cases, as is suspected in the still ongoing case of the “footgate” in Belgium, for example.

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