Arrested at London Airport : Police May Tarnish Suspected ‘Goldfinger’ in $39-Mil. Heist

A dapper jeweler suspected of melting down the gold bars in the $39-million Brinks robbery, earning the sobriquet “Goldfinger,” was arrested today after he stepped off a plane from Rio de Janeiro.

John Palmer, 36, was detained Saturday at the Rio De Janeiro airport after arriving with an outdated passport on a flight from Spain, where he had been living for 17 months.

He had left for Brazil just a few days before an extradition treaty between Spain and Britain came into effect Tuesday.

Half a dozen detectives in London boarded the Varig flight from Rio to arrest Palmer as he arrived at Heathrow Airport, which is near the site of the Nov. 26, 1983, heist at the Brinks Co. vault. The thieves escaped with 6,800 gold ingots weighing three tons, a quantity of diamonds and platinum and a number of travelers checks worth a total of $39 million--the biggest such heist in history.

Looking calm and relaxed, Palmer made no comment as he was led off. But in Brazil he told police: “I think I have a small problem in London but I think I can resolve it in a few weeks.”

British Embassy officials in Brazil had sought to question Palmer in connection with the robbery, but he surprised them by volunteering to return to London.

Originally Palmer went to the Spanish Canary Islands on a winter vacation, but when he learned in February, 1985, that police suspected him of planning the raid on the Brinks warehouse with nine other people, he never returned home.