Berlin police have raided homes and jewelery shops suspecting they could be linked to efforts to gradually close gold from a 100kg (220lb) Canadian coin that was stolen from a museum in the German capital.
The coin, with an estimated value of 3.75 million euros, was stolen from the Bode Museum in Berlin in 2017 and has not yet been recovered.
The morning raids focused on eight suspects between the ages of 14 and 51 of various nationalities, police said.
They were supposed to be part of a ring that obtained the stolen gold to melt it and forge collector coins and then sell them as authentic through jewelry operated by them or their relatives. Some of the counterfeits are already circulating, police said.
Investigations led to the discovery of counterfeit coins, counterfeit tools and a “five-digit” sum of cash, police said.
“Evaluation of the evidence is ongoing,” police said. “Among other things, a possible connection to the theft of the gold coin at the Bode Museum is being examined.”
Berlin prosecutors said there were no arrests, but the investigation was continuing.
The investigations came just two days after the arrest of a key suspect in the spectacular 18th-century jewel theft of a Dresden museum last year, which belongs to a criminal family linked to the theft of Canadian gold coin.
Mohamed Remmo, 21, was arrested by Berlin authorities in a car in the city’s Neukölln district on Monday evening. Her twin brother, Abdul Majed Remmo, continues to flee.
Police and prosecutors did not comment on whether there was a connection between the arrest and the records, but members of the same family were convicted earlier this year of stealing Canadian gold coins.
Cousins Ahmed Remmo and Wissam Remmo, along with a friend who worked as a security guard at the museum, were convicted of stealing Canadian gold coins and sentenced to several years in prison.