Just after 3am on July 17, an alarm went off at a jewellery shop on Mitcham Road in Tooting, south London. Officers arrived within minutes — and found a hole in the wall.
What happened
According to the Metropolitan Police, the gang had broken into a massage parlour next door to the jewellery shop, then tunneled through the connecting wall using bags of tools and excavation equipment, apparently trying to bypass the shop's own security systems by never going through its front door at all.
Two men, Ioan Asafeti, 39, and Laurentiu-Daniel Nitisoara, 38, both of no fixed address, were arrested at the scene. A third man, Sergiu Plastin, 42, of Portadown, Craigavon, was arrested separately at Stansted Airport.
A wider operation
The Tooting break-in turned out to be one piece of a larger investigation. The Metropolitan Police's Flying Squad linked the men to an organized crime group responsible for a string of jewellery shop burglaries across London worth more than £700,000 in total.
Their arrests didn't just stop this burglary...they formed part of a wider Flying Squad investigation that uncovered an organised crime group linked to a string of jewellery shop break-ins across London worth more than £700,000.
Detective Superintendent Dan Mitchell, Metropolitan Police Flying Squad
Where the case stands
All three men pleaded guilty on August 21. Sentencing is scheduled for October 23, 2026. IF Daily will update this story once sentencing has taken place.
