September 21, 2023 • 29 mins
The Dubai police are stumped as they work to track down the thieves from the smash-and-grab heist at Wafi Mall. When the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) gets involved, they find connections between the Dubai heist and other robberies around the world. Suddenly, the Pink Panthers are a major global threat, not just an embarrassment to local law enforcement. A special Interpol task force mobilizes to stop the Pink Panthers once and for all.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think these Pink Panther guys they chose Waffi Mall
because it was in a more dense part of the city,
so it was kind of easier for them to achieve
their smash and grab effect.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Journalist Bradley Hope spent a number of years reporting in
the United Arab Emirates.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I think there's something about the combination of the neighborhood,
the way that the streets were set up, probably the
relatively low security compared to some of the more fancy,
high end balls that had been sprouted up. It made
a perfect combination for this kind of smash and grab
robbery technique.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Clearly the team behind the Waffi Mall heist had chosen
their target well. The Pink Panthers were in and out
and under a minute. A quick drive on a nearby
freeway put them in a remote part of the city.
They set fire to their stolen Audis and fled the
country using forged passports. It was the perfect combination of conditions,
(00:56):
but it wasn't unique to this one city. Had successfully
done jobs all across Europe, so why travel all the
way to Dubai.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
There was probably a sense that the Dubai police were
not too vigilant compared to perhaps other places in the
world where you might be trying to pull off a
brazen heist like this, so they would have felt like
they were doing something pretty aggressive, but at the same time,
the chances of getting caught probably didn't feel as high
as if they had done it in London or Paris,
(01:27):
so that this might have appeared to them as actually
a relatively lower risk break in than it would be
in other places.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
True, they did manage to escape the country without a hedge,
but their assumptions about the Dubai police weren't entirely correct,
and the Big Panthers never anticipated that INTERPOL, the international
crime fighting organization, would take a sudden interest in their exploits.
(01:59):
I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a journalist based in Eastern Europe,
and I'm going to take you into the world of
Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
The most daring and successful diamond thieves in the world.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thirty to forty seconds they're in.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Out They've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store
in London and walked out with sixty six million dollars
in jewels. They called the Pink Panthers. They're a loosely
connected group of over educated, underemployed, ambitious young people who
rose from the ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the
(02:43):
nineteen nineties to commit elaborate smash and grab heists all
across the globe, often in broad daylight. This is infamous
international The Pink Panther Story, Episode four.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
The Interpol was founded based on a jewelry heist in
nineteen fourteen.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Wayne Southgaper was the director of interpolse Washington, d C.
Office from twenty sixteen to twenty twenty. He knows a
lot about the organization's one hundred year history.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So in nineteen fourteen, the crown Jewels of Austria were
stolen and the thieves jumped on the fastest motor convenience
back then, which is locomotive in Europe, and fled across border.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Prince Albert, the first of monacom decided to personally tackle
this growing problem of international crime.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Prince Albert of Monaco brought twelve or fourteen countries together
to talk about police cooperation. It was the first international
Criminal Police Congress.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
They made a list of best practices like ensuring police
departments in separate countries can talk directly, widespread use of
fingerprint technology, and simpler ways to extradite criminals when they
flee across international borders. Prince Albert's brainchild officially became the
International Criminal Police Organization, better known as INTERPOL.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
The whole charter is still the same today, bringing police
cooperation together, exchanging information, being able to provide information for
those cross border crimes. Now I think we're at one
hundred and ninety five member countries. The organization is headquartered
out of Leone, France, and again it's just an organization.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
It's not an agency.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
An organization not an agency. It seems like a minor point,
but it's actually an important distinction.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
The biggest confusion that there is out there in the
world is that INTERPOL is its own police agency. That's
not the case. It's Interpol is just a facilitator. So
when you see Interpol arrest somebody, it's really not Interpol
the organization arresting them. It's the country's police force that's
actually arresting them.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So in order for INTERPOL to be effective, its member
countries need to cooperate, which isn't always easy.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's one of those unique organizations in the world that
has almost every country. There's only one country that's not
part of Interpol, which is North Korea, but all the
other countries have membership in the organization, which is both
a strength as well as brings on some challenges.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
One of those challenges is getting everyone to agree on
which crimes to prioritize. The Pink Panthers knew that robbery
was not on Interpol's list, and they were able to
take advantage of that. Serbian journalists Elenazorich.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Interpol is not going to chase you that much if
you are not a murder. You have to be a
murder to be their top one priority, and that's why
every time Pink Panthers were working, they were very careful
not to harm anyone in their heights.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
But that was before the wa Fimol heist.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
The Dubai Police, the men and women are the force,
so some of the best trained officers in the world
in a state of constant readiness. The force is primed
to respond to any emergency, to meet any challenge, and
ready to answer any call throughout the Airmas.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's a promotional video put out by the Dubai police.
They took a good game, and yet the Pink Panthers
have outwitted them out, to run them and embarrassed them
on the international stage. They need to respond forcefully. Here's
Ilendozorich again speaking through a translator van Dubai.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
So in Dubai, just immediately after the high all the
airports were immediately shut and the city was completely blocked.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
The Dubai police make every effort, but gang leader Laden Lazarevitch,
his girlfriend Boyana Metic and their partner Milan lie Poya,
they all managed to slip through the police drag nat.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
It was crazy because everybody knows how the police in
Dubai is, and the police did react very fast, but
just a few hours later they were already on the
plane flying to Europe. Then they managed to escape and
they left to complete chaos in Dubai because nobody couldn't
believe that something like that could happen.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Dubai's chief of police knows a public relations disaster when
he sees one. The Wafimol heist is too big, too public,
too embarrassing. The fact that no one was heard doesn't
minimize the damage, and so the Dubai Chief of Police
reaches out to the head of Interpol for help. Here's
Wayne Salscaper again, Ron Noble.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Who is the Secretary General at the time. The job
of that Secretary General is to identify those trends that
are important as well as making sure that all the
police agencies come together.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
At forty one, Ron Noble is the youngest person to
ever lead Interpol and the first American. He's ambitious and
he seems like someone who will rise to the moment.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
There was a lot of maturity the Interpol went through
under Ron Noble's leadership between two thousand and one and
at two thousand and seven. Part of that was getting
a lot more technology integrated into the system to be
able to exchange information faster, cleaner, you know now, biometrics, DNA,
all those things were part of it.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
All of that technology really comes into play once you
have some evidence to work with. And within hours of
the highs to buy police discover a treasure trove. The
thieves thought they completely burned the audies, but they'd accidentally
left the windows up without enough oxygen. The fire had
died out the forensics team scours the site, collecting valuable
(08:32):
DNA and sending it on to Interpol. And soon after
the police catch another break. I asked my colleague Elan
Greenberg to describe how it happened.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
It starts with a tip from a guy at a
car rental place.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
This is how long after the heist.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
It's a couple of days. He tells the cops about
a suspicious phone call he got from an overseas number.
It's a mystery caller, and this person tells him not
to tell the police about the car they'd just rented,
which was overdue at this point, something about they still
need the vehicle and that they'd settle up later.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Wait, wait, which car are we talking about here?
Speaker 5 (09:15):
This was the one Boyana rented, remember with her own
credit card. It was a blue Nissan.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And this is the getaway car, the one after the abodies.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
Well probably so the cops they check it out. They
were able to find it pretty quickly, actually really quickly.
Surveillance cameras are everywhere, and tally, remember that the Pink
Panthers had rented an apartment in Dubai while they were
planning the heist, so right out in the parking lot
in front of this apartment. That's where the Dubai police
find the rental.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Car, right, and what happens after that?
Speaker 5 (09:46):
So, the cops decided to put the car in surveillance.
They want to see if anybody's going to show up,
and sure enough, they spot a middle aged guy coming
to the car. It turns out he's Serbian, and since
the cars linked to a crime, they immediately arrest him
and the cops supposedly they find a stash of jewelry
is in a hidden compartment inside the car.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And do we know that this jewelry that they find
is actually from the Wafi molheist.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Well, according to the police version, yes, officially they say
they recovered all of the jewelry from them all and
that it was in that Nissan. But from everything else
we know, that's pretty hard to believe.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I'm so not surprised. It really feels like everyone is
selling a story here. But let's come back to this
in a bit first. Tell me, So what happens when
they arrest this guy.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
It's the start of a manhunt. The cops learn about
the apartment, they scour it. They linked DNA from the
car and the apartment to a bunch of suspects. They
arrest the Serbian expat who's living in Dubai. The door
man helps finger some of the other suspects, including Milan Lapoya.
Of course, by now they've also linked Byanna to the cars,
(10:53):
since she was the one who rented it, but the
cops aren't able to locate her or Maladin Lezevich or
Milan la Poya.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Because they've escaped the country.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Right, but now they have hard evidence linking them to
the crime, so that's when they issue interpoal red notices
climb for their arrest.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Next tradition, the stolen loot credit carder seats eyewitnesses. The
evidence is piling up, and then Interpal tells Dubai that
they have a match for the DNA samples Milan Leipoya
and his close friend and fellow panther douchekopos Nan. It's
a major breakthrough. Here's Interval's Wayne Salthgate Brough.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I know that the Pink Panther one was probably one
of the first where they worked with DNA exchanges between
countries through the interpoal system.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
For Interpol Secretary General Row Nobel, it's a game changer
in an interview with Dateline on NBC, Nobel talked about
how the recovery of this DNA became his Aha moment.
Speaker 7 (11:54):
We put it in our database and the first hit
we have we matched it to a pink panther Leckenstein.
Suddenly we said, Wow, the Pink Panthers. They're actually engaging
in robberies around the world.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Everything snaps into focus. In our first episode we said
that Dubai was a turning point. Here is why local
law enforcement had been investigating each heist as a standalone crime.
But now with the Interpol DNA database, local authorities could
share their evidence and the same names pop up again
(12:30):
and again. Suddenly a string of unrelated robberies looked like
the work of an organized criminal network. No longer simply
a local problem, The Pink Panthers are now a global threat.
Here's my colleague Elon Greenberg again.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
So the head of Monaco's police department, that's Andre Maulberja.
He pushes round Noble at Interpol to create a working
group focus solely on the Pink panks.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Weyland, Why is Malbigh so interesting?
Speaker 5 (13:01):
So Monico was a favorite hotspot of the panthers. You
know in general. They love the south of France. They
pulled a couple of big heightsts in luxury hotels around there.
They had Robin jewelry store right across the street from
the police kiosk in Monaco. That must have felt like
a big poke in the eye. And they've done at
least two more heights right outside of Monaco. This is
altogether a big problem from Alberge and he's motivated to
(13:23):
deal with them.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I could see why, so does he deal with them?
Speaker 6 (13:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
In mid two thousand and seven, Ron Noble launches interpols
Operation Pink Panther. They're going to go on to host
an annual meeting and police from all over the world participate.
The idea here is to exchange information on how to
tackle the pink panther problem right and at INTERPOL, the
Operation Pink Panther team, they'll focus in the group year round.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
The pink Panthers are now officially one of Interpol's top priorities,
but back in Serbia, that just adds to their allure.
Journalist David Samiel wrote an in depth piece on the
pig Panthers for The New Yorker in twenty ten. Samuels
saw how Serbian pop culture has always tended to glorify
(14:10):
this kind of figure.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
It's a culture that celebrated these bandit figures. The idea
that your end will not be pleasant is deeply ingrained,
as is the lack of respect for law.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
On The New Yorker's Out Loud podcast, Samuels talked about
how one obscure pulp crime novel called Gorilla, published in
the mid nineteen seventies, had a profound influence on a
whole generation of Serbian gangsters.
Speaker 8 (14:40):
I'd say that all of the Serbian gangsters I met
had read this book, or at least claimed to have
read it. It's a cultural touchdown for them, the same
way that scarfaces for American gangsters. It's the story of
a Serbian man who comes to Paris and catches on
as a bodyguard to this famous French actor, and this
(15:02):
little purchase that he has on the good life kurdles
for him into this sort of unquenchable rage that he
is excluded from being fully human in Western Europe and
enjoying the luxuries that everyone else enjoys. The spirit of
this book really does match the feelings of many of
these gangsters.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
In fact, if you go further back in Balkan history,
there's long been a cultural archetype of the outlaw hero.
Journalist Elenazorich, again, we.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Had these outlaws that we call haiduk. Not sure exactly
if there is a word in English for that, but
this would be people who were admired because they were bold,
they were brave, but they were actually someone who was
robbing people on the road. You know, they were robbing
(15:53):
other people, but in one way they were like everybody
was admiring them.
Speaker 9 (15:58):
Even now, I think that this history created this figure
of a glamorous celebrity criminal who has an attitude and
who is daring. So this history is extremely important because
pink panthers are a cultural phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Film scholar admitriy Voinoff agrees with David Samuels that this
idea of celebrity criminals resonates with his fellow serbs in
part because it plays on their complicated feelings about the
riches of Western Europe.
Speaker 9 (16:29):
Whenever you watch a film, you tell yourself, these guys
are using a rope in order to enter a chimney,
in order to enter a ventilation shift, in order to
steal a watch. Why don't they go there, smash to
damn glass and take it. And sometimes these guys actually
did that, you know, And it resonates powerfully because all
(16:49):
of those luxurious commodities that are unavailable to the most
people in the world actually became an object to be stolen.
The jewels are to be stolen, you know. I mean
most of the you seen films are those that are
being stolen.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
But international law enforcement doesn't see that way at all.
They strongly object to this image of the panthers as
a kind of real life Oceans eleven committing victimless crimes
and with panache.
Speaker 10 (17:19):
When they were committing in the robbery, they were not violent,
but when you have a weapon in your face, it's
very hard for these people.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Captain R. Viconnon of the Paris police sactologically, it.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Was very violent for people.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Even if the guys are quiet and calm and they
don't shop like some other robberies, the stress.
Speaker 6 (17:39):
Of the employees is very intense and some of the
employees they stopped working in jewelries after that.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
It's too stressful.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
And we've heard the sentiment again and again. Retired watch
dealer Paul Thorpe and.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Joys be made.
Speaker 10 (17:54):
There is no Nissans in theft. And let me let
me assure anyone listening to this now that might think
that there is kind of romance behind these big gangs
and the robberies that I pull off. And everyone seems
to have this notion that these are victimous primes when
they're not.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Interpose Way Salz Gaber.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I don't think anybody who has actually victimized in those
shots will.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Tell you there was nothing. Liechtenstein's prosecutor, General Robert Wolner.
Speaker 11 (18:19):
We don't see anything numerous about them. If you enter
a shot with loaded weapons and point them at employees there,
it certainly has an effect on them or they left.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
In an interview with CBS sixty Minutes, interpolse Ron Nobel
justified creating a special working group that targeted the Pink Panthers,
despite the public image of the gang as mostly harmless.
Speaker 12 (18:45):
The problem with this group is that the name Pink
Panthers engenders inside us.
Speaker 7 (18:50):
The first memory is the movie.
Speaker 12 (18:52):
We smile at the name of Pink Panthers. That's why
we try to highlight whenever we can the way in
which they perpetrate the robberies. These are not nice guys,
and they're not nice guys are still in from the
ridge together to the port. These are just cold blooded
and ruthless and notorious thieves.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
If Laden, Boyana and Milan aren't worried about their futures
at this point, they probably should be. Boyana Mittic, her
(19:28):
boyfriend Laden Lazarevitch At their partner Milan le Puya all
make their way back to Serbia, to their hometown of Niche.
No matter what's happening with the investigation in Dubai. They
believe they can relax, not because they've covered their tracks,
but because they think it just doesn't matter. Yleno's rich
again and it's split upon.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Both of them. They were feeling that they would be
much safer in Serbia because once they come to Serbia,
definitely they would be protected from Dubai police. There would
be nothing else for the Dubai police to do if
they are not anymore in their country.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
There is no extradition treaty between the United Arab Emirates
and Serbia, and Serbian police are notoriously uncooperative. It's a
source of frustration for law enforcement in other countries. Captain
rveko Nan investigated some of the Panthers' biggest heists. In
two thousand and five, he was chasing a pink panther
(20:26):
named Dragon Mikic, who had just pulled a jewel heist
in the French Alps. Mikitch was caught during the getaway
when he tried to buy a train ticket using a
five hundred euro note, but despite being thrown into a
French prison, Dragon Mikitch managed to escape and make his
way back to his home in Belgrade, Serbia's capital.
Speaker 10 (20:47):
We all knew that he was in Belgrade, but it
was difficult to have an international warrant against him in Pilgrim.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
It's not just difficult to serve an international warrant in Belgrade,
it's nearly impossible.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
There were corruption in these countries, you know. In Serbia,
these guys were connected with very powerful people, so they
know that as soon as they were in that country
they were not in danger.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So difficult to recuperating when they are in the country,
very difficult. Far from acting like wanted criminals, Ladon, Bojana
and Milan are able to live openly in Serbia. By
all appearances, they're completely untroubled by the threat of arrest
or extradition. If Milan Lapoya knows he's a top priority
for Interpol, he certainly doesn't act like it.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
So at that time, while he was on Interpol's Red list,
on interpols Most Wanted list, he was actually roaming freely
the streets of Niche.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
He was the completely free.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Citizen Helen Zorach.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
So not only he was a free citizen, but he
also he could freely get his own place in the city.
To run his own.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Place, Milan opens a nightclub in the historic part of town.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
The business with the disco club. It was his way
to invest in a future, to invest in one day
when he would stop doing what he was doing. But
then in the meantime he would always go back to
what he was originally doing. He was always looking for
an excuse just to do another small robbery, just to
have some extra money in his pocket before finally settling down.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
But Milan's two occupations as a nightclub owner and as
pink panther are a tricky juggling act. About a year
after he returned from Dubai, Milan plans a big event
at his new club.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
He organized the whole party. He announced that it would
be a great party, but at the end himself he
didn't show up at a party because he had to
do another robbery in Europe, so he couldn't be there.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
It doesn't help that Milan has an excellent reputation as
a thief. The jobs come to him.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
He was invited to take part in a highst of
a very famous jewelry, and he knew he was wanted
by the interval at the time, but he just couldn't
resist it. He wanted to take part in it.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And so a little more than a year after the
highst of the Waffe Moore, the job that had made
him and his partners so famous, he's asked to lead
a team planning another heist, this time in France. Milan
travels to a town called Jacques, just over the Swiss border.
Like in Dubai, his first order of business is to
(23:36):
get the lay of the land.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
He was doing what they called the site inspection, so
he was taking a look at the streets what they
were always doing before every heist, to check out on
the streets and that neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Jacques is a quiet place home to about ten thousand people,
Yet it turns out to be surprisingly busy when Milan
arrives and among the visitors as It's detective named Young Glossy.
Speaker 6 (24:04):
So there was one inspector working for the interval who
was actually obsessed with Milan Yapoya. He knew him very well.
He knew about his work, he knew how it looked like.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Young Glassy had interrogated Milan in Switzerland two years prior,
just after the highst of the Huber watching jewelry shop
in Liechtenstein, and he's never forgotten him. Glassy is now
in Jack's on a completely different case.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
He was in the same neighborhood because he was told
that there was a heist that was about to happen
in that part of the city.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
In a twist of fate, Milan Lapoye has chosen to
stay in the exact same hotel as Detective Glassy. It's
about ten am on the morning of May twenty nine,
two thousand and eight. Striding through the lobby of their hotel,
Detective Glassy sees Milan la Poye. It takes a moment
(25:02):
for him to place Milan, but then it hits him
and Milan can see it happen. He blurts out, oh shit,
and spreads out into the street.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
So Mila Jeffoya said that he couldn't believe that he
would always remember the face of the inspector when he
caught him, because the inspector he had his eyes wide opened.
So he said, that's the face that he would never forget.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
From NBC Dateline, Detective Young glass Sea recalls every detail
of the chase.
Speaker 13 (25:33):
He run and he dropped, and I touched him at
this moment, and we fight that three for four minutes approximately.
It was like in the movies or scene his children
in the school, A beak tall gun running like that,
We jump off the fence.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Milan manages to hide in some bushes near that elementary
school and stays there motionless for hours. But Glassy calls
them the police dogs, and it came on. Milan emerges
from his hiding spot and surrenders peacefully to Glassy. Good job,
he says to the detective. A class act, it seems,
(26:10):
even as he's led away. So eighteen months after the
highst of de Waffe Mall, authorities finally have one of
the key gang members in custody. Based on DNA turned
up in interpolse database. They have the identity of another
(26:32):
doushkopos Nan. Credit card records link Boyana Mittic to the
crime as well, so that invincibility the Pink Panthers might
have once felt some cracks are starting to show. But
catching a Pink Panther and keeping one are different things entirely.
(26:52):
Milan Lipoya had escaped prison before. In fact, for the
Panthers it was something of a specialty. Coming up next
on Infamous International, The Pink Panther's Story, he.
Speaker 11 (27:08):
Was extraducted to us and we thought we could bring
him to trial, but he didn't have the intention to
stay with us.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
For the Ping Panthers, prison is just another part of
the job.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I will tell you that what you described to me
is just people practicing a trade, having a career criminal orientation,
and the escape is part.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
Of the trade.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And a heist in a prison break actually how long
and comming. Of course, this was part of the plant
and everything happened within seconds, and Dolliver just walked out
of prison and got on a motorbike that was waiting outside.
That's next time on Infamous International, The Pink Panther's Story
(28:00):
from his International. The Pink Panthers Story was produced by
Best Case Studios in association with Koda's Story, hosted by
me Natalie Antelavam and written by Katrina Wolfe, Adam Pinkis,
Suzanne Myers, and David Markowitz, with help from Brent Katz
and Matt Levin. For Best Case Studios Executive producer Adam Pinkis,
(28:25):
Senior producer David Markowitz, producer Katrina Wolfe, associate producer Hannah
Libovitz Lockhart, and consulting producers Julie Goldstein and Louis Spiegeler.
For Koda Story, reporting by Lane Greenberg with associate producer
Rebecca Robinson. Edited and sound designed by Gaylan Mullins and
(28:46):
Max Michael Miller. Music by Dave Harrington. Archival producers Mark
de Gora and Paul Dallas. This has been an exactly
right production. Executive producers Karen kil Gareff, Georgia hart Stark,
and Daniel Kramer, with consulting producer Kyle Ryan
I think these Pink Panther guys they chose Waffi Mall
because it was in a more dense part of the city,
so it was kind of easier for them to achieve
their smash and grab effect.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Journalist Bradley Hope spent a number of years reporting in
the United Arab Emirates.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I think there's something about the combination of the neighborhood,
the way that the streets were set up, probably the
relatively low security compared to some of the more fancy,
high end balls that had been sprouted up. It made
a perfect combination for this kind of smash and grab
robbery technique.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Clearly the team behind the Waffi Mall heist had chosen
their target well. The Pink Panthers were in and out
and under a minute. A quick drive on a nearby
freeway put them in a remote part of the city.
They set fire to their stolen Audis and fled the
country using forged passports. It was the perfect combination of conditions,
(00:56):
but it wasn't unique to this one city. Had successfully
done jobs all across Europe, so why travel all the
way to Dubai.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
There was probably a sense that the Dubai police were
not too vigilant compared to perhaps other places in the
world where you might be trying to pull off a
brazen heist like this, so they would have felt like
they were doing something pretty aggressive, but at the same time,
the chances of getting caught probably didn't feel as high
as if they had done it in London or Paris,
(01:27):
so that this might have appeared to them as actually
a relatively lower risk break in than it would be
in other places.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
True, they did manage to escape the country without a hedge,
but their assumptions about the Dubai police weren't entirely correct,
and the Big Panthers never anticipated that INTERPOL, the international
crime fighting organization, would take a sudden interest in their exploits.
(01:59):
I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a journalist based in Eastern Europe,
and I'm going to take you into the world of
Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
The most daring and successful diamond thieves in the world.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thirty to forty seconds they're in.
Speaker 4 (02:18):
Out They've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store
in London and walked out with sixty six million dollars
in jewels. They called the Pink Panthers. They're a loosely
connected group of over educated, underemployed, ambitious young people who
rose from the ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the
(02:43):
nineteen nineties to commit elaborate smash and grab heists all
across the globe, often in broad daylight. This is infamous
international The Pink Panther Story, Episode four.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
The Interpol was founded based on a jewelry heist in
nineteen fourteen.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Wayne Southgaper was the director of interpolse Washington, d C.
Office from twenty sixteen to twenty twenty. He knows a
lot about the organization's one hundred year history.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
So in nineteen fourteen, the crown Jewels of Austria were
stolen and the thieves jumped on the fastest motor convenience
back then, which is locomotive in Europe, and fled across border.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
Prince Albert, the first of monacom decided to personally tackle
this growing problem of international crime.
Speaker 3 (03:38):
Prince Albert of Monaco brought twelve or fourteen countries together
to talk about police cooperation. It was the first international
Criminal Police Congress.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
They made a list of best practices like ensuring police
departments in separate countries can talk directly, widespread use of
fingerprint technology, and simpler ways to extradite criminals when they
flee across international borders. Prince Albert's brainchild officially became the
International Criminal Police Organization, better known as INTERPOL.
Speaker 3 (04:11):
The whole charter is still the same today, bringing police
cooperation together, exchanging information, being able to provide information for
those cross border crimes. Now I think we're at one
hundred and ninety five member countries. The organization is headquartered
out of Leone, France, and again it's just an organization.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
It's not an agency.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
An organization not an agency. It seems like a minor point,
but it's actually an important distinction.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
The biggest confusion that there is out there in the
world is that INTERPOL is its own police agency. That's
not the case. It's Interpol is just a facilitator. So
when you see Interpol arrest somebody, it's really not Interpol
the organization arresting them. It's the country's police force that's
actually arresting them.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
So in order for INTERPOL to be effective, its member
countries need to cooperate, which isn't always easy.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
It's one of those unique organizations in the world that
has almost every country. There's only one country that's not
part of Interpol, which is North Korea, but all the
other countries have membership in the organization, which is both
a strength as well as brings on some challenges.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
One of those challenges is getting everyone to agree on
which crimes to prioritize. The Pink Panthers knew that robbery
was not on Interpol's list, and they were able to
take advantage of that. Serbian journalists Elenazorich.
Speaker 6 (05:26):
Interpol is not going to chase you that much if
you are not a murder. You have to be a
murder to be their top one priority, and that's why
every time Pink Panthers were working, they were very careful
not to harm anyone in their heights.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
But that was before the wa Fimol heist.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
The Dubai Police, the men and women are the force,
so some of the best trained officers in the world
in a state of constant readiness. The force is primed
to respond to any emergency, to meet any challenge, and
ready to answer any call throughout the Airmas.
Speaker 2 (06:06):
That's a promotional video put out by the Dubai police.
They took a good game, and yet the Pink Panthers
have outwitted them out, to run them and embarrassed them
on the international stage. They need to respond forcefully. Here's
Ilendozorich again speaking through a translator van Dubai.
Speaker 6 (06:28):
So in Dubai, just immediately after the high all the
airports were immediately shut and the city was completely blocked.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
The Dubai police make every effort, but gang leader Laden Lazarevitch,
his girlfriend Boyana Metic and their partner Milan lie Poya,
they all managed to slip through the police drag nat.
Speaker 6 (06:48):
It was crazy because everybody knows how the police in
Dubai is, and the police did react very fast, but
just a few hours later they were already on the
plane flying to Europe. Then they managed to escape and
they left to complete chaos in Dubai because nobody couldn't
believe that something like that could happen.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Dubai's chief of police knows a public relations disaster when
he sees one. The Wafimol heist is too big, too public,
too embarrassing. The fact that no one was heard doesn't
minimize the damage, and so the Dubai Chief of Police
reaches out to the head of Interpol for help. Here's
Wayne Salscaper again, Ron Noble.
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Who is the Secretary General at the time. The job
of that Secretary General is to identify those trends that
are important as well as making sure that all the
police agencies come together.
Speaker 2 (07:40):
At forty one, Ron Noble is the youngest person to
ever lead Interpol and the first American. He's ambitious and
he seems like someone who will rise to the moment.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
There was a lot of maturity the Interpol went through
under Ron Noble's leadership between two thousand and one and
at two thousand and seven. Part of that was getting
a lot more technology integrated into the system to be
able to exchange information faster, cleaner, you know now, biometrics, DNA,
all those things were part of it.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
All of that technology really comes into play once you
have some evidence to work with. And within hours of
the highs to buy police discover a treasure trove. The
thieves thought they completely burned the audies, but they'd accidentally
left the windows up without enough oxygen. The fire had
died out the forensics team scours the site, collecting valuable
(08:32):
DNA and sending it on to Interpol. And soon after
the police catch another break. I asked my colleague Elan
Greenberg to describe how it happened.
Speaker 5 (08:49):
It starts with a tip from a guy at a
car rental place.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
This is how long after the heist.
Speaker 5 (08:54):
It's a couple of days. He tells the cops about
a suspicious phone call he got from an overseas number.
It's a mystery caller, and this person tells him not
to tell the police about the car they'd just rented,
which was overdue at this point, something about they still
need the vehicle and that they'd settle up later.
Speaker 2 (09:13):
Wait, wait, which car are we talking about here?
Speaker 5 (09:15):
This was the one Boyana rented, remember with her own
credit card. It was a blue Nissan.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
And this is the getaway car, the one after the abodies.
Speaker 5 (09:24):
Well probably so the cops they check it out. They
were able to find it pretty quickly, actually really quickly.
Surveillance cameras are everywhere, and tally, remember that the Pink
Panthers had rented an apartment in Dubai while they were
planning the heist, so right out in the parking lot
in front of this apartment. That's where the Dubai police
find the rental.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Car, right, and what happens after that?
Speaker 5 (09:46):
So, the cops decided to put the car in surveillance.
They want to see if anybody's going to show up,
and sure enough, they spot a middle aged guy coming
to the car. It turns out he's Serbian, and since
the cars linked to a crime, they immediately arrest him
and the cops supposedly they find a stash of jewelry
is in a hidden compartment inside the car.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
And do we know that this jewelry that they find
is actually from the Wafi molheist.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
Well, according to the police version, yes, officially they say
they recovered all of the jewelry from them all and
that it was in that Nissan. But from everything else
we know, that's pretty hard to believe.
Speaker 2 (10:23):
I'm so not surprised. It really feels like everyone is
selling a story here. But let's come back to this
in a bit first. Tell me, So what happens when
they arrest this guy.
Speaker 5 (10:33):
It's the start of a manhunt. The cops learn about
the apartment, they scour it. They linked DNA from the
car and the apartment to a bunch of suspects. They
arrest the Serbian expat who's living in Dubai. The door
man helps finger some of the other suspects, including Milan Lapoya.
Of course, by now they've also linked Byanna to the cars,
(10:53):
since she was the one who rented it, but the
cops aren't able to locate her or Maladin Lezevich or
Milan la Poya.
Speaker 2 (11:00):
Because they've escaped the country.
Speaker 5 (11:02):
Right, but now they have hard evidence linking them to
the crime, so that's when they issue interpoal red notices
climb for their arrest.
Speaker 2 (11:09):
Next tradition, the stolen loot credit carder seats eyewitnesses. The
evidence is piling up, and then Interpal tells Dubai that
they have a match for the DNA samples Milan Leipoya
and his close friend and fellow panther douchekopos Nan. It's
a major breakthrough. Here's Interval's Wayne Salthgate Brough.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I know that the Pink Panther one was probably one
of the first where they worked with DNA exchanges between
countries through the interpoal system.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
For Interpol Secretary General Row Nobel, it's a game changer
in an interview with Dateline on NBC, Nobel talked about
how the recovery of this DNA became his Aha moment.
Speaker 7 (11:54):
We put it in our database and the first hit
we have we matched it to a pink panther Leckenstein.
Suddenly we said, Wow, the Pink Panthers. They're actually engaging
in robberies around the world.
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Everything snaps into focus. In our first episode we said
that Dubai was a turning point. Here is why local
law enforcement had been investigating each heist as a standalone crime.
But now with the Interpol DNA database, local authorities could
share their evidence and the same names pop up again
(12:30):
and again. Suddenly a string of unrelated robberies looked like
the work of an organized criminal network. No longer simply
a local problem, The Pink Panthers are now a global threat.
Here's my colleague Elon Greenberg again.
Speaker 5 (12:50):
So the head of Monaco's police department, that's Andre Maulberja.
He pushes round Noble at Interpol to create a working
group focus solely on the Pink panks.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Weyland, Why is Malbigh so interesting?
Speaker 5 (13:01):
So Monico was a favorite hotspot of the panthers. You
know in general. They love the south of France. They
pulled a couple of big heightsts in luxury hotels around there.
They had Robin jewelry store right across the street from
the police kiosk in Monaco. That must have felt like
a big poke in the eye. And they've done at
least two more heights right outside of Monaco. This is
altogether a big problem from Alberge and he's motivated to
(13:23):
deal with them.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
I could see why, so does he deal with them?
Speaker 6 (13:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:27):
In mid two thousand and seven, Ron Noble launches interpols
Operation Pink Panther. They're going to go on to host
an annual meeting and police from all over the world participate.
The idea here is to exchange information on how to
tackle the pink panther problem right and at INTERPOL, the
Operation Pink Panther team, they'll focus in the group year round.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
The pink Panthers are now officially one of Interpol's top priorities,
but back in Serbia, that just adds to their allure.
Journalist David Samiel wrote an in depth piece on the
pig Panthers for The New Yorker in twenty ten. Samuels
saw how Serbian pop culture has always tended to glorify
(14:10):
this kind of figure.
Speaker 8 (14:13):
It's a culture that celebrated these bandit figures. The idea
that your end will not be pleasant is deeply ingrained,
as is the lack of respect for law.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
On The New Yorker's Out Loud podcast, Samuels talked about
how one obscure pulp crime novel called Gorilla, published in
the mid nineteen seventies, had a profound influence on a
whole generation of Serbian gangsters.
Speaker 8 (14:40):
I'd say that all of the Serbian gangsters I met
had read this book, or at least claimed to have
read it. It's a cultural touchdown for them, the same
way that scarfaces for American gangsters. It's the story of
a Serbian man who comes to Paris and catches on
as a bodyguard to this famous French actor, and this
(15:02):
little purchase that he has on the good life kurdles
for him into this sort of unquenchable rage that he
is excluded from being fully human in Western Europe and
enjoying the luxuries that everyone else enjoys. The spirit of
this book really does match the feelings of many of
these gangsters.
Speaker 2 (15:24):
In fact, if you go further back in Balkan history,
there's long been a cultural archetype of the outlaw hero.
Journalist Elenazorich, again, we.
Speaker 6 (15:33):
Had these outlaws that we call haiduk. Not sure exactly
if there is a word in English for that, but
this would be people who were admired because they were bold,
they were brave, but they were actually someone who was
robbing people on the road. You know, they were robbing
(15:53):
other people, but in one way they were like everybody
was admiring them.
Speaker 9 (15:58):
Even now, I think that this history created this figure
of a glamorous celebrity criminal who has an attitude and
who is daring. So this history is extremely important because
pink panthers are a cultural phenomenon.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Film scholar admitriy Voinoff agrees with David Samuels that this
idea of celebrity criminals resonates with his fellow serbs in
part because it plays on their complicated feelings about the
riches of Western Europe.
Speaker 9 (16:29):
Whenever you watch a film, you tell yourself, these guys
are using a rope in order to enter a chimney,
in order to enter a ventilation shift, in order to
steal a watch. Why don't they go there, smash to
damn glass and take it. And sometimes these guys actually
did that, you know, And it resonates powerfully because all
(16:49):
of those luxurious commodities that are unavailable to the most
people in the world actually became an object to be stolen.
The jewels are to be stolen, you know. I mean
most of the you seen films are those that are
being stolen.
Speaker 2 (17:06):
But international law enforcement doesn't see that way at all.
They strongly object to this image of the panthers as
a kind of real life Oceans eleven committing victimless crimes
and with panache.
Speaker 10 (17:19):
When they were committing in the robbery, they were not violent,
but when you have a weapon in your face, it's
very hard for these people.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
Captain R. Viconnon of the Paris police sactologically, it.
Speaker 5 (17:31):
Was very violent for people.
Speaker 4 (17:32):
Even if the guys are quiet and calm and they
don't shop like some other robberies, the stress.
Speaker 6 (17:39):
Of the employees is very intense and some of the
employees they stopped working in jewelries after that.
Speaker 5 (17:45):
It's too stressful.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
And we've heard the sentiment again and again. Retired watch
dealer Paul Thorpe and.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Joys be made.
Speaker 10 (17:54):
There is no Nissans in theft. And let me let
me assure anyone listening to this now that might think
that there is kind of romance behind these big gangs
and the robberies that I pull off. And everyone seems
to have this notion that these are victimous primes when
they're not.
Speaker 2 (18:09):
Interpose Way Salz Gaber.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
I don't think anybody who has actually victimized in those
shots will.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Tell you there was nothing. Liechtenstein's prosecutor, General Robert Wolner.
Speaker 11 (18:19):
We don't see anything numerous about them. If you enter
a shot with loaded weapons and point them at employees there,
it certainly has an effect on them or they left.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
In an interview with CBS sixty Minutes, interpolse Ron Nobel
justified creating a special working group that targeted the Pink Panthers,
despite the public image of the gang as mostly harmless.
Speaker 12 (18:45):
The problem with this group is that the name Pink
Panthers engenders inside us.
Speaker 7 (18:50):
The first memory is the movie.
Speaker 12 (18:52):
We smile at the name of Pink Panthers. That's why
we try to highlight whenever we can the way in
which they perpetrate the robberies. These are not nice guys,
and they're not nice guys are still in from the
ridge together to the port. These are just cold blooded
and ruthless and notorious thieves.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
If Laden, Boyana and Milan aren't worried about their futures
at this point, they probably should be. Boyana Mittic, her
(19:28):
boyfriend Laden Lazarevitch At their partner Milan le Puya all
make their way back to Serbia, to their hometown of Niche.
No matter what's happening with the investigation in Dubai. They
believe they can relax, not because they've covered their tracks,
but because they think it just doesn't matter. Yleno's rich
again and it's split upon.
Speaker 6 (19:51):
Both of them. They were feeling that they would be
much safer in Serbia because once they come to Serbia,
definitely they would be protected from Dubai police. There would
be nothing else for the Dubai police to do if
they are not anymore in their country.
Speaker 2 (20:06):
There is no extradition treaty between the United Arab Emirates
and Serbia, and Serbian police are notoriously uncooperative. It's a
source of frustration for law enforcement in other countries. Captain
rveko Nan investigated some of the Panthers' biggest heists. In
two thousand and five, he was chasing a pink panther
(20:26):
named Dragon Mikic, who had just pulled a jewel heist
in the French Alps. Mikitch was caught during the getaway
when he tried to buy a train ticket using a
five hundred euro note, but despite being thrown into a
French prison, Dragon Mikitch managed to escape and make his
way back to his home in Belgrade, Serbia's capital.
Speaker 10 (20:47):
We all knew that he was in Belgrade, but it
was difficult to have an international warrant against him in Pilgrim.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
It's not just difficult to serve an international warrant in Belgrade,
it's nearly impossible.
Speaker 5 (20:59):
There were corruption in these countries, you know. In Serbia,
these guys were connected with very powerful people, so they
know that as soon as they were in that country
they were not in danger.
Speaker 2 (21:10):
So difficult to recuperating when they are in the country,
very difficult. Far from acting like wanted criminals, Ladon, Bojana
and Milan are able to live openly in Serbia. By
all appearances, they're completely untroubled by the threat of arrest
or extradition. If Milan Lapoya knows he's a top priority
for Interpol, he certainly doesn't act like it.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
So at that time, while he was on Interpol's Red list,
on interpols Most Wanted list, he was actually roaming freely
the streets of Niche.
Speaker 5 (21:44):
He was the completely free.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
Citizen Helen Zorach.
Speaker 6 (21:48):
So not only he was a free citizen, but he
also he could freely get his own place in the city.
To run his own.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Place, Milan opens a nightclub in the historic part of town.
Speaker 6 (22:00):
The business with the disco club. It was his way
to invest in a future, to invest in one day
when he would stop doing what he was doing. But
then in the meantime he would always go back to
what he was originally doing. He was always looking for
an excuse just to do another small robbery, just to
have some extra money in his pocket before finally settling down.
Speaker 2 (22:25):
But Milan's two occupations as a nightclub owner and as
pink panther are a tricky juggling act. About a year
after he returned from Dubai, Milan plans a big event
at his new club.
Speaker 6 (22:37):
He organized the whole party. He announced that it would
be a great party, but at the end himself he
didn't show up at a party because he had to
do another robbery in Europe, so he couldn't be there.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
It doesn't help that Milan has an excellent reputation as
a thief. The jobs come to him.
Speaker 6 (22:58):
He was invited to take part in a highst of
a very famous jewelry, and he knew he was wanted
by the interval at the time, but he just couldn't
resist it. He wanted to take part in it.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
And so a little more than a year after the
highst of the Waffe Moore, the job that had made
him and his partners so famous, he's asked to lead
a team planning another heist, this time in France. Milan
travels to a town called Jacques, just over the Swiss border.
Like in Dubai, his first order of business is to
(23:36):
get the lay of the land.
Speaker 6 (23:38):
He was doing what they called the site inspection, so
he was taking a look at the streets what they
were always doing before every heist, to check out on
the streets and that neighborhood.
Speaker 2 (23:50):
Jacques is a quiet place home to about ten thousand people,
Yet it turns out to be surprisingly busy when Milan
arrives and among the visitors as It's detective named Young Glossy.
Speaker 6 (24:04):
So there was one inspector working for the interval who
was actually obsessed with Milan Yapoya. He knew him very well.
He knew about his work, he knew how it looked like.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Young Glassy had interrogated Milan in Switzerland two years prior,
just after the highst of the Huber watching jewelry shop
in Liechtenstein, and he's never forgotten him. Glassy is now
in Jack's on a completely different case.
Speaker 6 (24:31):
He was in the same neighborhood because he was told
that there was a heist that was about to happen
in that part of the city.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
In a twist of fate, Milan Lapoye has chosen to
stay in the exact same hotel as Detective Glassy. It's
about ten am on the morning of May twenty nine,
two thousand and eight. Striding through the lobby of their hotel,
Detective Glassy sees Milan la Poye. It takes a moment
(25:02):
for him to place Milan, but then it hits him
and Milan can see it happen. He blurts out, oh shit,
and spreads out into the street.
Speaker 6 (25:12):
So Mila Jeffoya said that he couldn't believe that he
would always remember the face of the inspector when he
caught him, because the inspector he had his eyes wide opened.
So he said, that's the face that he would never forget.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
From NBC Dateline, Detective Young glass Sea recalls every detail
of the chase.
Speaker 13 (25:33):
He run and he dropped, and I touched him at
this moment, and we fight that three for four minutes approximately.
It was like in the movies or scene his children
in the school, A beak tall gun running like that,
We jump off the fence.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
Milan manages to hide in some bushes near that elementary
school and stays there motionless for hours. But Glassy calls
them the police dogs, and it came on. Milan emerges
from his hiding spot and surrenders peacefully to Glassy. Good job,
he says to the detective. A class act, it seems,
(26:10):
even as he's led away. So eighteen months after the
highst of de Waffe Mall, authorities finally have one of
the key gang members in custody. Based on DNA turned
up in interpolse database. They have the identity of another
(26:32):
doushkopos Nan. Credit card records link Boyana Mittic to the
crime as well, so that invincibility the Pink Panthers might
have once felt some cracks are starting to show. But
catching a Pink Panther and keeping one are different things entirely.
(26:52):
Milan Lipoya had escaped prison before. In fact, for the
Panthers it was something of a specialty. Coming up next
on Infamous International, The Pink Panther's Story, he.
Speaker 11 (27:08):
Was extraducted to us and we thought we could bring
him to trial, but he didn't have the intention to
stay with us.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
For the Ping Panthers, prison is just another part of
the job.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I will tell you that what you described to me
is just people practicing a trade, having a career criminal orientation,
and the escape is part.
Speaker 5 (27:28):
Of the trade.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
And a heist in a prison break actually how long
and comming. Of course, this was part of the plant
and everything happened within seconds, and Dolliver just walked out
of prison and got on a motorbike that was waiting outside.
That's next time on Infamous International, The Pink Panther's Story
(28:00):
from his International. The Pink Panthers Story was produced by
Best Case Studios in association with Koda's Story, hosted by
me Natalie Antelavam and written by Katrina Wolfe, Adam Pinkis,
Suzanne Myers, and David Markowitz, with help from Brent Katz
and Matt Levin. For Best Case Studios Executive producer Adam Pinkis,
(28:25):
Senior producer David Markowitz, producer Katrina Wolfe, associate producer Hannah
Libovitz Lockhart, and consulting producers Julie Goldstein and Louis Spiegeler.
For Koda Story, reporting by Lane Greenberg with associate producer
Rebecca Robinson. Edited and sound designed by Gaylan Mullins and
(28:46):
Max Michael Miller. Music by Dave Harrington. Archival producers Mark
de Gora and Paul Dallas. This has been an exactly
right production. Executive producers Karen kil Gareff, Georgia hart Stark,
and Daniel Kramer, with consulting producer Kyle Ryan
Host
Natalia Antelava
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