Pink Panthers - Arrests and Breakouts

Arrests and Breakouts

The thieves have been identified and linked through DNA matching according to Interpol leader Ronald Noble.

In 2005, two men and one woman gang member from Serbia were arrested in Belgrade. In October 2007, they were sentenced to jail terms by a court in Serbia for the theft of the Comtesse de Vendome necklace, worth approximately £15 million ($30 million), from a Tokyo jewelry boutique, in what was Japan's biggest ever jewel robbery in March 2004. The gang leader was sentenced to seven years of imprisonment whilst the other two were handed lesser sentences.

Three Pink Panthers from Serbia were declared guilty of robberies carried out in Biarritz, Cannes, Courchevel and Saint-Tropez by one court in Chambéry in 2008. Two were given jail-terms of six and ten years.

One suspect in a June 2007 Ginza heist, a Montenegrin-national named Rifat Hadziahmetovic, traveling on a forged Bulgarian passport, was arrested in March 2009 by Cypriot police at Larnaca International Airport. He is due to serve a sentence in Cyprus for travelling on a forged passport before being extradited to Spain. He was extradited from Spain to Japan and, in September 2011, was sentenced to 10 years in prison. HIs accomplice, Radovan Jelusic, was arrested in Italy in 2010 over a separate crime, then was extradited to Montenegro to stand trial on 18 May 2012.

On 20 June 2009, French police in Monte Carlo detained another three members of the gang seen loitering near jewellery shops in Monaco. The gang members drove up outside a casino in Casino Square on 18 June 2009. The men were told to lie down and were then handcuffed before being whisked away from the scene quickly.

One of the three arrested, Dragan Mikić, is of special interest to the police investigation. He is from Serbia and is on the Interpol's "Most Wanted" list, possibly being a senior member of the Pink Panthers. Mikić has been on the run since 2005 after breaking out of jail via a ladder whilst other people fired machine guns at the prison.

A head figure of Pink Panthers, Mitar Marjanovic, was arrested on 8 March 2012 in Rome, after two of his accomplices in a bank robbery, committed a month earlier, dropped stolen items containing Marjanovic's fingerprints.

On 14 March 2012, three more members of the gang were arrested in Athens, Greece. Two of the three were male Serbians, aged 20 and 36, and were arrested while reconnoitering a jewelry store robbery. Patrolling police was prompted to question them due to their wearing wigs. The two men fled and the 36 year old fired and injured a police officer during the pursuit that followed. Both were arrested and led the police to the arrest of the third person, a 43 year old Serbian female, Olivera Vasić Ćirković. On 12 July 2012 Olivera escaped from Athens' prison by knocking out a guard and stealing her keys.