The raid, in which the thieves tunnelled into the vaults of Hatton Garden Safety Deposit Ltd over the Easter bank holiday weekend, sparked both international headlines and comparisons with Hollywood movies.
Public interest in the raid was so great that an interactive graphic issued by the Met detailing how the raiders gained access to the building was viewed almost 2 millions times.
Scotland Yard says seven men were arrested at 12 addresses in north London and Kent at around 10.30 on Tuesday in a series of co-ordinated raids which involved more than 200 officers.
Officers also recovered bags containing “significant amounts of high value property” which the Met says it’s “confident” are items stolen during the burglary.
The force has also issued an apology after an internal investigation into its handling of a alarm call from the premises which was classified as not needing officers to attend.
In a statement Scotland Yard admitted that: “on this occasion our call handling system and procedures for working with the alarm monitoring companies were not followed. Our normal procedures would have resulted in police attending the scene, and we apologise that this did not happen.”
However a force spokesperson says a security guard did attend the premises and “saw nothing more than our officers would have done had they been deployed.”
Detective Superintendent Craig Turner, Head of the Flying Squad, commented: “This has been an exceptional, complex investigation and I thank everyone for remaining patient. I think this sends a message in relation to this type of crime that is committed within London that the MPS will do as much as they can to bring justice to those victims of crime.”
