The Diamonds Caroussel
The Chechen arms-trafficking brothers Mutaliev, with connections in Romania and the Republic of Moldova lost a plane in Angola in 1997. The aircraft, a Soviet-made AN 72 cargo belonging to the Renan lines in Moldova, but which flew for the Congo-based Pelikan Air, was forced to land and the crew were imprisoned by the Angolan army. The plane had made a series of suspicious stop-overs in South Africa, Cote d'Ivoire (Abidjan) and Angola (Andula) and was due back to Moldova. According to survivors, the aircraft had carried weapons, five Liberian passengers and a sizable amount of diamonds, the reason for its arrest. Unofficial data indicated that the diamonds were to be shipped to Romania. Starting from this indirect connection to Romania on the guns-for-diamonds market, we have embarked on a thorough investigation on the Romanian diamond market, which has taken off quite fast in the last ten years. We have found a concealed world, where secrecy surpasses the absurd. We have also foun