Were the Munch Paintings Stolen to Distract from the NOKAS Heist?

[arildno]

In September 2004, the famous paintings "Scream" and "Madonna" by E. Munch were stolen in broad daylight from the Munch museum in Oslo.
The paintings have not been recovered as yet, but some of the background behind the robberies has now been clarified, and the police is pretty certain who did it, and who might knowthe whereabouts of the paintings.

Some weeks before the Munch robbery, a daring raid was made against NOKAS in Stavanger (a money central). One policeman was shot down during the raid, and died of his wounds later.
The NOKAS robbers escaped, but in the ensuing weeks, the police grew hot on their trail, and it is now believed that the Munch raid was staged in order to divert police resources from the NOKAS case.

As of now, the NOKAS robbers are awaiting the court's decision (they were apprehended in the intervening time), and it is believed that the "mastermind" behind the NOKAS robbery, David Toska, may choose to reveal the whereabouts of the paintings in order to get a reduced sentence.

It IS known that the prime suspect in the Munch case is an old buddy of Toska, and that money have been found in the possession of Munch suspects that are probably from the NOKAS raid.
I.e, it seems they were paid to do the Munch robbery.

Time will tell, I suppose..

 

[zoobyshoe]

That's wicked devious, like a movie plot: a diversionary theft. Very bad people.

 

[arildno]

"Bad" in many ways. The so-called "mastermind" Toska forgot his ID in the car he escaped in, and had to flee abroad to escape an early arrest.
the police knew right from the start that he was in on the NOKAS theft, even though they didn't publizise his name for a while...