Three Men Admit South London Jewellery Burglary Plot Linked to £700,000 Thefts

Q: What hidden cross-border crime network was finally exposed by a desperate rooftop hiding spot in London?

It exposed a wider organised jewellery-burglary network operating across London, with suspected links into Europe. Police say the rooftop arrest of Ioan Asafeti in Tooting, together with the capture of Laurentiu-Daniel Nitisoara nearby and Sergiu Plastin at Stansted Airport as he tried to flee to Ireland, did more than stop a single break-in. The Met’s Flying Squad linked the trio to a series of jewellers’ burglaries across London between May and July, with losses estimated at more than £700,000. Investigators said the gang specialised in tunnelling into premises from neighbouring properties, such as the massage parlour next to the Tooting jeweller, in order to bypass alarms and other security systems. Officers recovered tools and equipment at the scene, while later CCTV and phone-data work helped connect the suspects to the broader burglary pattern. The cross-border element emerged through Interpol inquiries, which indicated possible links to similar jewellery-shop offences elsewhere in Europe. In effect, the failed south London tunnel raid helped uncover what detectives describe as an organised crime group working beyond a single local burglary spree and potentially connected to a wider European network targeting high-value jewellery businesses.

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Aug 21

Three men admitted conspiracy to commit burglary after police caught them trying to tunnel from a massage parlour into a jewellery shop in Tooting on 17 July.
Body-camera footage showed Laurentiu-Daniel Nitisoara arrested in a nearby alley, Ioan Asafeti found hiding on a rooftop, and Sergiu Plastin later detained at Stansted Airport while trying to board a flight to Ireland.
Police found a hole being dug through the adjoining wall and bags of tools, with detectives saying the gang used overnight tunnelling to bypass security systems.
The Met's Flying Squad tied the men to commercial burglaries targeting London jewellers between May and July, with stolen goods worth more than £700,000 and possible links to similar crimes in Europe.
Asafeti, 39, Nitisoara, 38, and Plastin, 42, are due to be sentenced at Kingston Crown Court on 23 October.