New Zealand police bust foreign jewel theft gang

Jun 2, 2011, 3:49 GMT

Wellington - New Zealand police said Thursday that they had arrested five foreign jewel thieves and were looking for two others after two high-value heists in Auckland last month.

They said the four men and three women had robbed a Sydney-based jewellery manufacturer of more than 100,000 New Zealand dollars (81,400 US dollars) worth of goods in the suburb of Parnell on May 2.

Two other international jewellery salesmen were robbed of goods worth more than 600,000 New Zealand dollars outside a hotel in central Auckland on May 17.

Police said two women were arrested on May 19 at Auckland International Airport when checking in for a flight to Los Angeles. Two men and another woman were arrested in Wellington on Thursday.

All have been charged with aggravated robbery.

Three of those arrested are Colombians travelling on United States passports and the other two were using Mexican passports when they arrived in New Zealand in April.