France, Belgium hold two over 14-mn-euro Dutch heist

French and Belgian police arrested two suspects in connection with a deadly 14-million-euro precious metals heist in Amsterdam earlier this year, law enforcement officials said on Tuesday.

Officers detained a 44-year-old man in Paris and a 20-year-old woman at her home in Ganshoren just north of Brussels in a two-day operation on Monday and Tuesday, the EU’s judicial agency Eurojust said.

One suspected robber was killed and six other suspects arrested in a movie-like high-speed car chase and shootout that erupted after the $16-million raid on a security van in north Amsterdam on May 19.

The man and woman arrested this week were “suspects of a violent robbery of a trading company in precious metals” that involved “extreme violence”, the Hague-based Eurojust said in a statement.

A shop in Paris and the homes of both suspects were also searched on Tuesday, with police seizing items including cars and digital storage, the Dutch public prosecution service said in a separate statement.

The Netherlands will now ask Belgium and France to hand over the two suspects for possible trial, while prosecutors said further arrests could follow.

The heist stunned the Netherlands, with the hooded, masked robbers using automatic weapons to open fire on the armoured van in broad daylight as it was parked outside the trading company.

The robbers then exchanged gunfire with police during a car chase along roads and across a meadow in the scenic town of Broek in Waterland, during which one suspect was killed and six others caught.

“After the heist, the suspects escaped with precious metals with an estimated value of approximately 14 million euros, of which the majority has already been recovered,” Eurojust said.

The dead man was later named as a 47-year-old French citizen, while the six other suspects, all from France and Belgium, remain behind bars and are next due in court on November 15, prosecutors said.