September 25, 2025 • 25 mins
The Pink Panthers emerged not from Hollywood, but from the ashes of war-torn Balkans in the 1990s. Young men who once fought in brutal conflicts found themselves in collapsed economies with few legitimate opportunities but with military training, discipline, and the ruthlessness needed to execute some of history's most audacious jewellery heists.
Their name originated from a 2003 robbery at Graff Diamonds in London's prestigious Mayfair district. After stealing 47 items worth nearly £23 million in under three minutes, police later found a blue diamond hidden in a jar of face cream, a detail straight from the 1963 comedy film "The Pink Panther." This moment of life imitating art gave birth to their infamous moniker, but there was nothing comedic about their operations.
What made them truly unique was their network structure, small, shifting cells with no clear hierarchy, where a driver in Geneva might be a gunman in Tokyo months later. This fluidity, combined with loyalty forged in conflict, has continuously frustrated international investigators. The Pink Panthers remain active today, their full story still unfolding across police files worldwide.
Want to hear more untold crime stories? Support us on Patreon for exclusive content and early access to new episodes. The criminal underworld has many more secrets waiting to be uncovered.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Welcome to ClueTrail the path through history's
darkest crimes and strangestmysteries.
Today we're exploring the storyof a network of jewel thieves
known as the Pink Panthers.
Their robberies stretchedacross Europe, the Middle East
(00:39):
and Asia, targeting airports,luxury boutiques and even
private banks.
In the process, they stolehundreds of millions in diamonds
and jewels.
They are often described asamongst the most successful
jewel thieves in the world, butbehind the glamour and headlines
(01:04):
lies a different reality.
Their story begins not in theworld of luxury, but in the
aftermath of war in the Balkansof the 1990s.
This is the story of the PinkPanthers' heists.
(01:43):
The Balkans in the 1990s were aregion in turmoil.
In the former Yugoslavia, warstore through cities and villages
, leaving devastation anddisplacement on a massive scale.
But this unrest wasn't confinedto Yugoslavia alone.
Across the wider Balkans, inAlbania, bulgaria, romania and
(02:07):
beyond, the collapse ofcommunism, fragile new
democracies and failingeconomies created instability
that touched nearly everyhousehold, and for the young men
caught in this upheaval, theexperience was defining.
Many fought in the Yugoslavwars, where they learned to move
(02:32):
quickly, to trust only thosebeside them and to survive in a
world where violence often hadthe final say, had the final say
when the wars ended.
Peace brought little relief,with factories shut and
(02:52):
economies in free fall.
Thousands were left adrift andpoverty and corruption created
the perfect ground for organizedcrime.
So criminal clans began toemerge.
Montenegro, particularly thecoastal town of Kotor, became
(03:14):
home of two tribal clans, theCavace clan and the Scaliari
clan.
Both dealt in drug trafficking,cigarette smuggling and arms
trading.
Over time, their influencespread beyond Montenegro's
borders, stretching deep intoWestern Europe.
(03:34):
In Serbia, the infamous Zimunclan rose to power.
Power and figures like DushanSpasoyevich, mille Lukovic and
the feared enforcer Sretkov theBeast Kalinic built empires on
smuggling routes, politicalconnections and ruthless
(03:57):
violence.
And in Belgrade, what began asfootball hooliganism among the
partisan supporters escalatedquickly.
The group known as the Principi, led by Veliko Belovic and
Marko Milicovic, evolved fromstadium fights into kidnappings,
(04:18):
extortion and murder.
These networks were difficultto penetrate.
Many of their members hadfought side by side or grown up
in the same tough streets.
They trusted each other, keptsilent under pressure and
carried the kind of disciplinethat police forces often
(04:40):
underestimated, oftenunderestimated.
By the late 1990s, these clansand networks were already
stretching across Europe.
They carried with them not onlysmuggling rules but also the
confidence that came fromsurviving in fractured states
(05:01):
and out of this underworld wouldemerge the jewel thieves the
world would come to know as thePink Panthers.
(05:34):
It was the morning of 19th ofMay 2003.
On New Bond Street in Mayfair,life moved as usual.
Bond Street in Mayfair, lifemoved as usual.
This was London's luxury mile,with chauffeurs waiting at the
curb, shoppers stepping in andout of boutiques, the air of
(05:55):
quiet wealth unmistakable.
And at the heart of it stoodGraff Diamonds, among the most
exclusive je jewelers in theworld, a place where royalty,
celebrities and collectors cameto buy what few others could
(06:17):
even dream of.
Its windows shimmered with rarediamonds and precious gems
shimmered with rare diamonds andprecious gems.
Inside, staff were used to therhythm of high society.
Tourists, business figures andeven royalty came through the
doors.
At first, nothing seemedunusual when two men walked in.
(06:42):
They were well-dressed,confident, the sort of customers
who belonged there.
But in a moment the sceneturned Out of nowhere.
The men pulled out handguns andstarted ordering people around.
One staff member laterdescribed the moment as surreal.
(07:07):
We thought we were about to die.
It felt unreal like a movie.
The robbers moved quickly andprecise.
They went straight for the mostvaluable cases, filling bags
with pieces worth a fortune.
They took 47 items in totalvaluable cases filling bags with
(07:28):
pieces worth a fortune.
They took 47 items in totaldiamonds, watches and jewellery
worth nearly 23 million pounds,and amongst them was a rare blue
diamond ring, one of Graf'sshowcase gems One of Graff's
showcase gems.
The entire ordeal lasted lessthan three minutes before the
(07:49):
men were gone.
No shots were fired and no onewas injured, just pure shock.
When Scotland Yard beganinvestigating, it was clear this
was no ordinary robbery.
The precision, the speed, thediscipline the thieves were in
(08:11):
and out in under three minutes.
It suggested training,organization and planning well
beyond the typical armed robbery.
So Scotland Yard reached out toInterpol Soon after.
Investigators traced thesuspects back to Balkan crime
(08:33):
groups forged in the conflictsof the 1990s.
But despite internationalcooperation, much of the craft's
loot vanished into the shadows,most likely recut, resold and
scattered across black marketswhere its origins could never be
traced.
(08:55):
However, not all was lost.
Weeks later, as policecontinued hunting the suspects,
they made an unusual discoveryInside a London flat linked to
the robbers.
Detectives opened a bathroomcabinet there, hidden in a jar
(09:19):
of face cream, was the missingblue diamond ring.
It was a detail so strange thatit transformed the whole story
in the eyes of the public.
Journalists pounced on thereference to the 1963 comedy the
Pink Panther, where a diamondwas concealed in exactly the
(09:42):
same way.
From that moment, the gang hada name the Pink Panthers.
After London, the Pink Panthersdidn't just fade away enjoying
(10:13):
the riches of their stolentreasure.
They actually grew bolder,striking across Europe and soon
the world.
Next came Dubai, the city ofluxury.
In April 2007, two stolen AudiA8s smashed through the entrance
(10:36):
of the Wafi City Mall, sendingglass flying as people screamed
and ducked for cover.
In seconds, masked men stormedinto the house of Graf.
The robbery took less than aminute, and millions in diamonds
and watchers vanished into thebags.
(10:58):
Then, just as quickly, the mengot back in the cars and were
gone.
One eyewitness later told localreporters it was like something
from a film.
We thought it was a terroristattack at first.
The noise was so violent,similar to the London robbery.
(11:23):
The group didn't leave muchevidence behind, but, crucially,
among the wreckage, the burntout cars and the mess they left
behind, investigators recoveredtraces of DNA.
This was the first clearforensic link trying suspects
back to the Balkan groups.
(11:45):
Tokyo, thousands of miles fromMayfair, soon felt the same
shock.
In March 2007, shoppers inTokyo's glittering Ginza
district a hub of luxuryboutiques, neon lights and some
of the most expensive realestate in the world watched as
(12:07):
three Serbian nationals stormeda jewelry store.
Within minutes, they had stolena diamond, tiara and necklace
worth over three million.
The getaway was swift but,unlike London, not flawless.
Within weeks, japanese policearrested the suspects.
(12:27):
This was one of the rare Pantorcases where the perpetrators
were caught, though it remainsunclear how much of the
jewellery was ever recovered.
Then it was Paris, the city oflights and fashion.
In October 2007, armed menentered Harry Winston, one of
(12:51):
the city's most prestigiousjewellers.
With help from a corruptsecurity guard, they emptied
display cases with anunbelievable efficiency.
But the real shock came thefollowing year, in December 2008
, when three men in wigs, makeupand heels strolled casually
(13:15):
into Harry Winston.
Again, to the staff, theylooked eccentric but harmless.
That was until the gunsappeared.
The thieves ordered employeesto fill their bags with diamonds
and watches.
In less than 20 minutes theywalked out with more than 18
(13:36):
million euros in gems, more than18 million euros in jams.
French media described thescene with disbelief it was like
a carnival turned nightmare,they said.
The investigation was extensiveand took police from London to
Paris, switzerland and evenDubai.
The DNA evidence recovered inDubai turned out to be pivotal,
(14:05):
as it tied suspects to therobberies across Europe, linking
the crimes back to the samenetwork.
By 2013, authorities estimatedthat about 189 individuals
linked to the Panthers had beenarrested.
Some were jailed in Dubai,others in France, switzerland or
even Japan.
But despite those successes,much of the stolen treasure was
(14:30):
never recovered.
Diamonds and jewels simplyvanished into the black markets.
However, it appeared that evenbeing captured, even sitting
behind prison walls, didn'talways stop them.
In July 2013, milan Poparic,jailed for a jewelry store
(14:55):
robbery in Neuchatel,switzerland, was broken out of
prison in an unbelievable coupstaged by his accomplices.
Outside helpers rammed thegates with a vehicle, sprayed
gunfire from AK-47s to hold backguards and set up ladders over
(15:16):
barbed wire.
In the chaos, poparegi andanother inmate climbed out and
escaped.
The entire breakout lasted onlyminutes, but it humiliated
Swiss authorities and showedthat Panther loyalty extended
far beyond the heists themselves.
(15:36):
It was an unbelievable move,like a scene carved straight out
of a movie.
From 2007 to the mid 2010, thePink Panthers struck all across
the world, raiding boutiques inParis, smashing through malls in
(15:57):
Dubai, heating stores in Tokyoand even targeting exhibitions
along the French Riviera.
Investigators link them to morethan 380 robberies worldwide,
with losses believed to exceed330 million euros.
The gang has been active sinceabout 2001 and investigators
(16:26):
suspect its methods were stilllinked to jewel thefts into the
late 2010s.
Yet for all the arrests andheadlines, one mystery still
remained what happened to thejewels once they were stolen?
For investigators, despite thespectacle of heists across the
(16:59):
globe, one question lingeredwhat happened to the jewels once
they were stolen?
By 2013, years after theheadline robberies across Europe
, only a small portion of thetreasure had ever resurfaced.
Most commonly, stolen stoneswere recut to eliminate unique
(17:23):
identifiers, then moved througha chain of middlemen or fences
operating out of places likeAntwerp, dubai or Hong Kong.
Poor customs oversight andsometimes corruption made
tracing almost impossible.
In many cases, police forcesrecovered nothing more than
(17:47):
scattered pieces a few watches,partial sets or jewelry already
dismantled.
And yet even those scatteredpieces proved valuable.
Dna left in Dubai, recoveredwatches from Luzon and
occasional traceable markingsgave authorities the links they
(18:08):
needed to build cases againstsuspects across Europe and
beyond.
And even if the jewelsthemselves disappeared without a
trace, the investigation wasn'tover.
The focus just shifted and thequestion was no longer what was
stolen, but who were the menbehind these heists and how far
(18:31):
did the network reach?
The investigation spanned acrossthe globe.
Police forces in London, paris,geneva, tokyo and Dubai all
faced the same puzzle Heiststhat were fast, precise and
eerily familiar in execution.
So by 2007, interpol took thestep of establishing a dedicated
(18:59):
Pink Panther working group anddozens of countries began
sharing intelligence.
Now, forensic data from Dubaiwas cross-matched with cases in
Switzerland, surveillancefootage from France was shared
with Japan, and intelligencesoon flowed across borders.
(19:22):
This was a crucial step inestablishing a pattern, and for
the first time, police began tosee the robberies not as
isolated crimes but as the workof a global network.
The evidence that surfaced wasrarely straightforward, but
(19:44):
piece by piece, the picturebecame clear.
This was not a single gang, butbut a forever changing, almost
brotherhood-like network linkedto Balkan roots and
military-style disciplinelearned in the wars that ravaged
the area.
And soon patterns began toemerge.
(20:08):
Every heist carried the samehallmarks Remarkable speed,
precise execution, cleverdisguise and a preference for
smashing showcases rather thandisabling alarms.
Interpol analysts comparedwitness accounts, security
(20:29):
footage and ballistic reportsacross dozens of countries.
They built biometric profiles,shared DNA results and tracked
false identities moving throughairports in Europe and Asia.
Slowly, the web connecting thePink Panthers became clear the
(20:52):
same name, the same facesappearing and reappearing in
connection with jobs, thousandsof miles apart.
And as investigations unfoldedacross different countries, the
arrests soon began.
Some even made headlines.
The arrests soon began.
(21:15):
Some even made headlines.
In Japan, Rifat Ajametovic wasjailed for the Ginza robbery
after spraying store clerks withtear gas and fleeing on a
bicycle with millions in jewels.
In Rome, radovan Jelusek wascaught with a forged passport,
wanted for multiple robberiesacross Europe and Asia.
In Switzerland, panther suspectMilan Poparic was convicted in
(21:41):
Neuchatel, though hisspectacular prison break in 2013
became infamous in its ownright.
And in France, eight men tiedto the Harry Winston robberies
were convicted in 2015,including the insider guard who
had betrayed his post.
(22:02):
Despite the arrests,investigators struggled to piece
together a clear hierarchy.
There was no single godfatherfigure.
Instead, the Panthers operatedin small cells with constantly
shifting assignments A driver inGeneva might be a lookout in
(22:22):
Paris or a gunman in Tokyo.
Arresting one crew only meantanother would just simply step
in.
The media often portrayed thePanthers as Hollywood-style
thieves, comparing the robberiesto blockbuster films and even
retelling them in documentaries,but investigators cautioned
(22:47):
against the glamour.
One officer warned for everyglamorous headline, there is a
victim who will never forgetthose three minutes of fear.
And this is the harsh reality,because behind the image of
suave jewel thieves were momentsof raw terror, when a staff was
(23:12):
forced to the floor with gunsaimed at their faces,
undoubtedly fearing for theirlives.
The story of the Pink Panthersis far from over.
While a handful of members areserving long sentences, many
others continue to evade captureand with so much of the stolen
(23:35):
treasure still missing, the PinkPanthers remain an active file
(24:04):
on police desks around the world.
To be continued, the story ofthe Pink Panthers shows how
crime can live in two worlds onerecorded in police files and
another kept alive in headlinesand pop culture.
If you'd like to go further withus, we share bonus episodes,
(24:27):
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And if you're listening onApple or Spotify, a quick rating
(24:49):
or review helps new listenersdiscover the show.
Thank you.
Welcome to ClueTrail the path through history's
darkest crimes and strangestmysteries.
Today we're exploring the storyof a network of jewel thieves
known as the Pink Panthers.
Their robberies stretchedacross Europe, the Middle East
(00:39):
and Asia, targeting airports,luxury boutiques and even
private banks.
In the process, they stolehundreds of millions in diamonds
and jewels.
They are often described asamongst the most successful
jewel thieves in the world, butbehind the glamour and headlines
(01:04):
lies a different reality.
Their story begins not in theworld of luxury, but in the
aftermath of war in the Balkansof the 1990s.
This is the story of the PinkPanthers' heists.
(01:43):
The Balkans in the 1990s were aregion in turmoil.
In the former Yugoslavia, warstore through cities and villages
, leaving devastation anddisplacement on a massive scale.
But this unrest wasn't confinedto Yugoslavia alone.
Across the wider Balkans, inAlbania, bulgaria, romania and
(02:07):
beyond, the collapse ofcommunism, fragile new
democracies and failingeconomies created instability
that touched nearly everyhousehold, and for the young men
caught in this upheaval, theexperience was defining.
Many fought in the Yugoslavwars, where they learned to move
(02:32):
quickly, to trust only thosebeside them and to survive in a
world where violence often hadthe final say, had the final say
when the wars ended.
Peace brought little relief,with factories shut and
(02:52):
economies in free fall.
Thousands were left adrift andpoverty and corruption created
the perfect ground for organizedcrime.
So criminal clans began toemerge.
Montenegro, particularly thecoastal town of Kotor, became
(03:14):
home of two tribal clans, theCavace clan and the Scaliari
clan.
Both dealt in drug trafficking,cigarette smuggling and arms
trading.
Over time, their influencespread beyond Montenegro's
borders, stretching deep intoWestern Europe.
(03:34):
In Serbia, the infamous Zimunclan rose to power.
Power and figures like DushanSpasoyevich, mille Lukovic and
the feared enforcer Sretkov theBeast Kalinic built empires on
smuggling routes, politicalconnections and ruthless
(03:57):
violence.
And in Belgrade, what began asfootball hooliganism among the
partisan supporters escalatedquickly.
The group known as the Principi, led by Veliko Belovic and
Marko Milicovic, evolved fromstadium fights into kidnappings,
(04:18):
extortion and murder.
These networks were difficultto penetrate.
Many of their members hadfought side by side or grown up
in the same tough streets.
They trusted each other, keptsilent under pressure and
carried the kind of disciplinethat police forces often
(04:40):
underestimated, oftenunderestimated.
By the late 1990s, these clansand networks were already
stretching across Europe.
They carried with them not onlysmuggling rules but also the
confidence that came fromsurviving in fractured states
(05:01):
and out of this underworld wouldemerge the jewel thieves the
world would come to know as thePink Panthers.
(05:34):
It was the morning of 19th ofMay 2003.
On New Bond Street in Mayfair,life moved as usual.
Bond Street in Mayfair, lifemoved as usual.
This was London's luxury mile,with chauffeurs waiting at the
curb, shoppers stepping in andout of boutiques, the air of
(05:55):
quiet wealth unmistakable.
And at the heart of it stoodGraff Diamonds, among the most
exclusive je jewelers in theworld, a place where royalty,
celebrities and collectors cameto buy what few others could
(06:17):
even dream of.
Its windows shimmered with rarediamonds and precious gems
shimmered with rare diamonds andprecious gems.
Inside, staff were used to therhythm of high society.
Tourists, business figures andeven royalty came through the
doors.
At first, nothing seemedunusual when two men walked in.
(06:42):
They were well-dressed,confident, the sort of customers
who belonged there.
But in a moment the sceneturned Out of nowhere.
The men pulled out handguns andstarted ordering people around.
One staff member laterdescribed the moment as surreal.
(07:07):
We thought we were about to die.
It felt unreal like a movie.
The robbers moved quickly andprecise.
They went straight for the mostvaluable cases, filling bags
with pieces worth a fortune.
They took 47 items in totalvaluable cases filling bags with
(07:28):
pieces worth a fortune.
They took 47 items in totaldiamonds, watches and jewellery
worth nearly 23 million pounds,and amongst them was a rare blue
diamond ring, one of Graf'sshowcase gems One of Graff's
showcase gems.
The entire ordeal lasted lessthan three minutes before the
(07:49):
men were gone.
No shots were fired and no onewas injured, just pure shock.
When Scotland Yard beganinvestigating, it was clear this
was no ordinary robbery.
The precision, the speed, thediscipline the thieves were in
(08:11):
and out in under three minutes.
It suggested training,organization and planning well
beyond the typical armed robbery.
So Scotland Yard reached out toInterpol Soon after.
Investigators traced thesuspects back to Balkan crime
(08:33):
groups forged in the conflictsof the 1990s.
But despite internationalcooperation, much of the craft's
loot vanished into the shadows,most likely recut, resold and
scattered across black marketswhere its origins could never be
traced.
(08:55):
However, not all was lost.
Weeks later, as policecontinued hunting the suspects,
they made an unusual discoveryInside a London flat linked to
the robbers.
Detectives opened a bathroomcabinet there, hidden in a jar
(09:19):
of face cream, was the missingblue diamond ring.
It was a detail so strange thatit transformed the whole story
in the eyes of the public.
Journalists pounced on thereference to the 1963 comedy the
Pink Panther, where a diamondwas concealed in exactly the
(09:42):
same way.
From that moment, the gang hada name the Pink Panthers.
After London, the Pink Panthersdidn't just fade away enjoying
(10:13):
the riches of their stolentreasure.
They actually grew bolder,striking across Europe and soon
the world.
Next came Dubai, the city ofluxury.
In April 2007, two stolen AudiA8s smashed through the entrance
(10:36):
of the Wafi City Mall, sendingglass flying as people screamed
and ducked for cover.
In seconds, masked men stormedinto the house of Graf.
The robbery took less than aminute, and millions in diamonds
and watchers vanished into thebags.
(10:58):
Then, just as quickly, the mengot back in the cars and were
gone.
One eyewitness later told localreporters it was like something
from a film.
We thought it was a terroristattack at first.
The noise was so violent,similar to the London robbery.
(11:23):
The group didn't leave muchevidence behind, but, crucially,
among the wreckage, the burntout cars and the mess they left
behind, investigators recoveredtraces of DNA.
This was the first clearforensic link trying suspects
back to the Balkan groups.
(11:45):
Tokyo, thousands of miles fromMayfair, soon felt the same
shock.
In March 2007, shoppers inTokyo's glittering Ginza
district a hub of luxuryboutiques, neon lights and some
of the most expensive realestate in the world watched as
(12:07):
three Serbian nationals stormeda jewelry store.
Within minutes, they had stolena diamond, tiara and necklace
worth over three million.
The getaway was swift but,unlike London, not flawless.
Within weeks, japanese policearrested the suspects.
(12:27):
This was one of the rare Pantorcases where the perpetrators
were caught, though it remainsunclear how much of the
jewellery was ever recovered.
Then it was Paris, the city oflights and fashion.
In October 2007, armed menentered Harry Winston, one of
(12:51):
the city's most prestigiousjewellers.
With help from a corruptsecurity guard, they emptied
display cases with anunbelievable efficiency.
But the real shock came thefollowing year, in December 2008
, when three men in wigs, makeupand heels strolled casually
(13:15):
into Harry Winston.
Again, to the staff, theylooked eccentric but harmless.
That was until the gunsappeared.
The thieves ordered employeesto fill their bags with diamonds
and watches.
In less than 20 minutes theywalked out with more than 18
(13:36):
million euros in gems, more than18 million euros in jams.
French media described thescene with disbelief it was like
a carnival turned nightmare,they said.
The investigation was extensiveand took police from London to
Paris, switzerland and evenDubai.
The DNA evidence recovered inDubai turned out to be pivotal,
(14:05):
as it tied suspects to therobberies across Europe, linking
the crimes back to the samenetwork.
By 2013, authorities estimatedthat about 189 individuals
linked to the Panthers had beenarrested.
Some were jailed in Dubai,others in France, switzerland or
even Japan.
But despite those successes,much of the stolen treasure was
(14:30):
never recovered.
Diamonds and jewels simplyvanished into the black markets.
However, it appeared that evenbeing captured, even sitting
behind prison walls, didn'talways stop them.
In July 2013, milan Poparic,jailed for a jewelry store
(14:55):
robbery in Neuchatel,switzerland, was broken out of
prison in an unbelievable coupstaged by his accomplices.
Outside helpers rammed thegates with a vehicle, sprayed
gunfire from AK-47s to hold backguards and set up ladders over
(15:16):
barbed wire.
In the chaos, poparegi andanother inmate climbed out and
escaped.
The entire breakout lasted onlyminutes, but it humiliated
Swiss authorities and showedthat Panther loyalty extended
far beyond the heists themselves.
(15:36):
It was an unbelievable move,like a scene carved straight out
of a movie.
From 2007 to the mid 2010, thePink Panthers struck all across
the world, raiding boutiques inParis, smashing through malls in
(15:57):
Dubai, heating stores in Tokyoand even targeting exhibitions
along the French Riviera.
Investigators link them to morethan 380 robberies worldwide,
with losses believed to exceed330 million euros.
The gang has been active sinceabout 2001 and investigators
(16:26):
suspect its methods were stilllinked to jewel thefts into the
late 2010s.
Yet for all the arrests andheadlines, one mystery still
remained what happened to thejewels once they were stolen?
For investigators, despite thespectacle of heists across the
(16:59):
globe, one question lingeredwhat happened to the jewels once
they were stolen?
By 2013, years after theheadline robberies across Europe
, only a small portion of thetreasure had ever resurfaced.
Most commonly, stolen stoneswere recut to eliminate unique
(17:23):
identifiers, then moved througha chain of middlemen or fences
operating out of places likeAntwerp, dubai or Hong Kong.
Poor customs oversight andsometimes corruption made
tracing almost impossible.
In many cases, police forcesrecovered nothing more than
(17:47):
scattered pieces a few watches,partial sets or jewelry already
dismantled.
And yet even those scatteredpieces proved valuable.
Dna left in Dubai, recoveredwatches from Luzon and
occasional traceable markingsgave authorities the links they
(18:08):
needed to build cases againstsuspects across Europe and
beyond.
And even if the jewelsthemselves disappeared without a
trace, the investigation wasn'tover.
The focus just shifted and thequestion was no longer what was
stolen, but who were the menbehind these heists and how far
(18:31):
did the network reach?
The investigation spanned acrossthe globe.
Police forces in London, paris,geneva, tokyo and Dubai all
faced the same puzzle Heiststhat were fast, precise and
eerily familiar in execution.
So by 2007, interpol took thestep of establishing a dedicated
(18:59):
Pink Panther working group anddozens of countries began
sharing intelligence.
Now, forensic data from Dubaiwas cross-matched with cases in
Switzerland, surveillancefootage from France was shared
with Japan, and intelligencesoon flowed across borders.
(19:22):
This was a crucial step inestablishing a pattern, and for
the first time, police began tosee the robberies not as
isolated crimes but as the workof a global network.
The evidence that surfaced wasrarely straightforward, but
(19:44):
piece by piece, the picturebecame clear.
This was not a single gang, butbut a forever changing, almost
brotherhood-like network linkedto Balkan roots and
military-style disciplinelearned in the wars that ravaged
the area.
And soon patterns began toemerge.
(20:08):
Every heist carried the samehallmarks Remarkable speed,
precise execution, cleverdisguise and a preference for
smashing showcases rather thandisabling alarms.
Interpol analysts comparedwitness accounts, security
(20:29):
footage and ballistic reportsacross dozens of countries.
They built biometric profiles,shared DNA results and tracked
false identities moving throughairports in Europe and Asia.
Slowly, the web connecting thePink Panthers became clear the
(20:52):
same name, the same facesappearing and reappearing in
connection with jobs, thousandsof miles apart.
And as investigations unfoldedacross different countries, the
arrests soon began.
Some even made headlines.
The arrests soon began.
(21:15):
Some even made headlines.
In Japan, Rifat Ajametovic wasjailed for the Ginza robbery
after spraying store clerks withtear gas and fleeing on a
bicycle with millions in jewels.
In Rome, radovan Jelusek wascaught with a forged passport,
wanted for multiple robberiesacross Europe and Asia.
In Switzerland, panther suspectMilan Poparic was convicted in
(21:41):
Neuchatel, though hisspectacular prison break in 2013
became infamous in its ownright.
And in France, eight men tiedto the Harry Winston robberies
were convicted in 2015,including the insider guard who
had betrayed his post.
(22:02):
Despite the arrests,investigators struggled to piece
together a clear hierarchy.
There was no single godfatherfigure.
Instead, the Panthers operatedin small cells with constantly
shifting assignments A driver inGeneva might be a lookout in
(22:22):
Paris or a gunman in Tokyo.
Arresting one crew only meantanother would just simply step
in.
The media often portrayed thePanthers as Hollywood-style
thieves, comparing the robberiesto blockbuster films and even
retelling them in documentaries,but investigators cautioned
(22:47):
against the glamour.
One officer warned for everyglamorous headline, there is a
victim who will never forgetthose three minutes of fear.
And this is the harsh reality,because behind the image of
suave jewel thieves were momentsof raw terror, when a staff was
(23:12):
forced to the floor with gunsaimed at their faces,
undoubtedly fearing for theirlives.
The story of the Pink Panthersis far from over.
While a handful of members areserving long sentences, many
others continue to evade captureand with so much of the stolen
(23:35):
treasure still missing, the PinkPanthers remain an active file
(24:04):
on police desks around the world.
To be continued, the story ofthe Pink Panthers shows how
crime can live in two worlds onerecorded in police files and
another kept alive in headlinesand pop culture.
If you'd like to go further withus, we share bonus episodes,
(24:27):
early access and exclusiveseries on Patreon, where your
support helps us keep followingthese trails.
You can also find Clue Trail onInstagram and TikTok, where we
post updates and more ways to bepart of the conversation.
And if you're listening onApple or Spotify, a quick rating
(24:49):
or review helps new listenersdiscover the show.
Thank you.
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