Thieves who robbed Kim Kardashian’s £3.5m engagement ring ‘will cut precious stone to ensure they cannot be traced’

THE thieves who stole Kim’s £3.5million engagement ring will take enormous care to ensure they cannot be traced back to the crime.

Easily-recognised items like the star’s Lorraine Schwartz gem will be checked for serial numbers before being re-cut by specialists and sold.

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A diamond gang’s first move is usually to flee the country where they struck and head to a location where cops are not searching for them.

Due to jewels’ small size, it’s almost impossible for border police to stop the items being taken abroad.

Diamond expert Fred Cuellar said: “Even with millions of Pounds of jewellery, we’re not talking about a wheelbarrow-sized amount of stones – more like a small box full of them. It’s very difficult to detect that.”

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The crooks are likely to avoid high-profile diamond hubs like Antwerp, Belgium, in favour of countries where their stolen goods are unlikely to arouse as much suspicion.

In addition, laws designed to prevent the trade in African “blood diamonds” now make it tricky to sell illicit gems in Europe and the US – so the crooks may target countries which don’t stick to the rules.

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Cuellar explains: “Regulations aren’t as closely followed in China and India – which are two big emerging markets for diamonds.”

Other experts have suggested that Dubai in the United Arab Emirates is a frequent destination for stolen stones, with controls there also much weaker than in Europe.

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When offering the items for sale, less-famous gems can simply be released onto the market in a slow trickle to avoid arousing suspicion.

Cuellar explains: “If crooks re-mount less valuable diamonds in a different setting – perhaps in a ring – it’s possible they could even be on the market within weeks.”

But with larger items – like Kim’s 15 carat Lorraine Schwartz engagement ring – the gang will take painstaking care to ensure they cannot be traced back to the robbery.

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Anything over five carats will be checked over for serial numbers engraved on by the jeweller to prevent theft.

These can then be polished off before the item is re-cut into smaller stones by a specialist team ahead of being sold, as the original would be too recognisable within the jewellery world.

Alternatively, the gang may already have a buyer for the jewels lined up – who simply doesn’t care about their criminal origins.

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But even if they manage to sell on their goods overseas, it’s not all good news for the criminals.

Because their black-market origins, the stones could be worth as little as three or four per cent of their full price.

Sometimes crooks choose to avoid these issues by using stolen diamonds as criminal currency, swapped for drugs and weapons to avoid carrying around large amounts of cash, which is easy to trace if stored electronically.