Istanbul: Diamonds

Two wily thieves plan a heist of Antwerp diamonds from South Africa from an Istanbul bank and create some Interpol diaries!

One last very fun heist story about Interpol, Istanbul, Antwerp diamonds, and an inside-man funny job. Hope you like this one (signing off), 

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Isaac and Ishmael planned the perfect bank robbery of diamonds at the Doyce Bank in Istanbul, Turkey in the summer of 2022. Ishmael would obtain a fake Interpol police ID and open a personal account at the Doyce Bank and continue to keep visiting for the week leading upto the robbery of the diamonds from Antwerp stored at the bank in Istanbul. Istanbul is a traffic-symbolic historic city of culture and politics, and the Antwerp diamonds Isaac and Ishmael intended to steal were mired in some heavy black market activity from South Africa. They discovered this information from the underground and headed to Istanbul together as team-mates.

Ishmael kept visiting the Doyce Bank and saying that he had moved to Istanbul and was enjoying visiting his favorite bank now as a representative from Interpol police, claiming that he was privately and secretly tracking a dastardly thief roaming in the area, having come from South Africa and seeking to steal the Antwerp diamonds from the bank. Ishmael told the manager and the guards he'd be visiting the bank frequently now and doing stakeouts, since he believed this elusive and unidentified terrorist-thief might strike the Doyce Bank at any time seeking to steal the diamonds. The personnel at the Doyce Bank grew to like Ishmael and respected him as a dependable monitoring and regularly visiting Interpol officer working undercover.

Isaac walked into the bank wearing a mask on the day of the heist, and Ishmael was already sitting inside with a gun that shot blanks. Ishmael was talking to the bank manager when Isaac burst into Doyce Bank. Isaac pulled out his concealed plastic syringe filled with corrosive HCL acid and grabbed the first guard he saw by the neck and ordered him to raise his firearm and point it at one of the other guards. He then instructed both guards to walk him to the vault where the Antwerp diamonds were stored. After Isaac pocketed the diamonds, he kept holding the two guards hostage and proceeded to try to exit the bank when Ishmael jumped up behind him and shot his gun with blanks into his chest, and Isaac grabbed his chest and pinched a packet of pre-packaged blood from a blood-bank he stole and pretended to become unconscious. Ishmael informed the manager that this fallen masked individual attempting to steal the Antwerp diamonds was the thief he was tracking and took the Antwerp diamonds and Isaac with him into his parked (painted!) fake cop-car and reported he was driving to the authorities with the diamonds for protection. Isaac was therefore the odd-duck in this inside-man equation. Isaac was fine, and he had done his part beautifully.

Ishmael and Isaac drove to the airport and took an Aeroflot flight to the Virgin Islands with the Antwerp diamonds mixed in with a bag of ornamented glass fake gems and glass animals. They retired after selling the diamonds in the black market, and the personnel at Doyce Bank simply assumed Ishmael had continued to do security work regarding the politically heavy Antwerp diamonds from South Africa and went away somewhere with his prisoner-thief Isaac and chose not to pursue the matter, since the bank manager himself was somewhat itchy about holding the politically heavy diamonds at his bank. Ishmael actually then phoned Interpol and reported the entire ordeal and claimed he was an undercover agent working with the US and South African governments dually and was now chasing the thief Isaac who managed to get away from him again. Ishmael disappeared of course to the Virgin Islands with Isaac. Everyone simply assumed their cat-and-mouse game could've continued to the death after both men simply vanished with the politically uncomforting Antwerp diamonds. Ishmael had done his part beautifully.

INTERPOL: "We currently believe this undercover world-agent has somehow gone underground to keep tracking this thief who stole the Antwerp diamonds of great controversy or that the two men may have killed each other; in either case, we're pursuing all diamond matters with the South African government currently!"

Isaac and Ishmael changed their appearances and grew beards and opened a tourist pub in the Virgin Islands called the Pelican Brief with the money they exchanged for the diamonds in the black market. It was a grand and politically convenient heist for these two master-pirates in the modern world.

The Doyce Bank meanwhile didn't suffer any egregious defamation or insults and were honestly relieved to be rid of the politically heavy Antwerp diamonds from South Africa!

ISAAC: Thank goodness for my little acid-syringe that day!

ISHMAEL: Robbery tools are always quite...designed.

The point of this heist tale is to respect the levels of bureaucracy and intrigue that goes into the everyday functioning of world policing and the political monitoring behind all kinds of modern underground market activity including the transport and management of controversial assets, bonds, and of course, diamonds.

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"Money is everything" (Ecclesiastes)