The Pink Panthers International

While not related to the bumbling Inspector Clouseau, this organized crime team derived its moniker from the comedy film series. Composed of Siberian, Montenegrin, and Yugoslavian ex-military left over from the Bosnian War, The Pink Panthers have around 200 to 300 active members with elite skills.

Responsible for some of the world’s most high-profile heists amounting to nearly $1 billion in stolen jewels and gold, the Pink Panthers have elevated their thefts to an art form.

Since 2001, the group has targeted luxury jewelry stores in the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Australia, and the United States. In 2007, Interpol created the Pink Panther Project, bringing together international law enforcement. Since then, authorities have arrested only a fraction of its members.

Formation of the Pink Panthers

Here’s a gross oversimplification of a very complex situation.

When the president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Marshal Josip Broz Tito, died in 1980, separatist groups fought for control of the region. The once ethnically diverse nation devolved into civil war. Then the United Nations imposed sanctions, crippling the country further.

During this time, many turned to smuggling for survival, bootlegging anything from jeans to guns. Others joined elite military forces, learning highly technical skills that later served them in a life of organized crime.

The defunct Yugoslavian government issued fake documents to smugglers and other criminals, sending them abroad, hoping they’d rid their country of the undesirables. Instead, they unleashed a highly trained, organized crime syndicate into Europe and beyond.

Early Operations and Namesake

Much of the Pink Panthers’ early days found them stealing cars and breaking into homes. They found this criminal activity low in reward and high in risk. Jewelry stores, especially luxury establishments, are plentiful in booty and low on security as they discourage celebrity clients with cash. From 2000 on, the Pink Panthers have operated well-organized cells across the globe, jumping into action at a moment’s notice.

In May 2003, the Pink Panthers earned their recognizable name.

Nebojsa Denic, an imposing Serb from Kosovo, entered Graff and asked to see a ring. He wore an Elvis-style pompadour wing and carried an umbrella. As the attendant stooped to retrieve the ring, Denic pulled a.357 Mangum and told everyone to get on the floor. A second man entered and smashed display cases with a hammer, scooping up twenty-seven pieces of jewelry before the pair escaped.

Several days later, Scotland Yard identified Denic’s accomplice as Milan Jovetic, a Montenegrin fixer. The police searched the rental Jovetic and his girlfriend Ana Stankovic rented and recovered a jar of cold cream that held a blue diamond ring, a Graff specialty, worth $750 thousand. When investigators made his tidbit public, reporters dubbed them the Pink Panthers as the plot of the Pink Panther Returns contains a scene in which the crooks hide jewels in a jar of face cream.

The Graff robbery kicked off a dozen Pink Panther heists across Europe and Asia, which raked in nearly a quarter of a billion dollars.

The Stuff of Movies

Known for their over-the-top flare, the Pink Panthers have pulled off heists that would have been at home on the silver screen. Employing outrageous outfits, high-speed getaways, facial prosthetics, and wigs, the Pink Panthers are anything but mundane criminals.

In 2005, a group dressed in matching flower shirts entered Julian in St. Tropez, France, in the middle of the day and escaped via speed boat.

At Wafi, a luxury Dubai mall in April 2007, unsuspecting shoppers milled about as a pair of stolen cars crashed through the mall entrance and into Graff Jewelers. Banishing sledgehammers and crowbars, they grabbed millions of dollars in diamonds, only to disappear down the highway.

The police discovered the cars a day later. The assailants set ablaze. However, one car had its windows rolled up, snuffing the fire before it consumed the evidence. Fingerprints and DNA led to the arrest of Milan Ljepoja and Dusko Poznan. Milan’s girlfriend, Ana Stankovic, escaped to Serbia.

In a Tokyo raid, a group of men in well-tailored suits popped into a jewelry store, teargassed the employees, and stole over $2 million in jewels before fleeing on bicycles. The whole caper took a whopping 26 seconds.

The Largest Heist in British History

The Pink Panters entered the world stage in 2009 when they pulled off the London Graff Heist, clocking in at $65 million in diamonds. The caper involved four men who arrived via taxi. They entered Graff’s and exited two minutes later, carrying roughly the cost of a spanking new Gulf Stream under their arms and a hostage in tow.

A passerby caught the incident on a cell phone, but when the culprits fired into the air, clearing their path, the would-be filmer lost sight of them, and they disappeared. The thieves led police on a chase through the city, changing vehicles three times and crashing one before handing the jewels off to an accomplice on a motorbike, at which point the authorities lost them.

Pink Panthers Success

Much of the Pink Panthers’ success owes to their meticulous planning. Several months go into each theft, using an array of members, ensuring that things go off without a hitch. Both male and female Pink Panther members hold equal weight within the organization, but there is a fine line between who does what.

Female members don’t engage in the actual heists. Instead, they help plan jobs and collect vital reconnaissance. A well-dressed, confident woman can fly under security better than the male members. They can infiltrate shops without raising suspicion. Wealthy women love to shop, and the Pink Panthers exploit this stereotype.

The Response of Law Enforcement

Agencies pool their resources and share information about the crimes, hoping to decipher the gang operations. Over the last decade, authorities have arrested several hundred members for their part in various thefts worldwide, but questions remain; Who is in charge?

Leading members of the Pink Panthers remain unknown to investigators, and those in custody aren’t talking. Known as ‘Family,’ those in charge exude a loyalty rare among criminals.

The Pink Panther’s structure remains a mystery, even to those within the group. They maintain their secrecy by not disclosing how they decide which jobs they take, who chooses the team, or who their direct boss is for a particular mission. All the secrecy has kept law enforcement in the dark.

High Ambitions

By 2008, the Pink Panthers expanded their sights to include precious works of art. Targeting a museum in Zürich, Switzerland, they got away with a Monet, a Van Gogh, a Cézanne, and a Degas worth more than $150 million.

After the Zürich art heist, the Pink Panthers fell silent for half a decade. This temporary quiet spell followed the arrest of several high-profile Pink Panthers between 2005 to 2009. Then in 2013, the Pink Panthers struck again when a man donning a scarf and baseball cap broke into the Ritz Carlton in Cannes, France, and made off with $126 million in jewels.

Prison Breaks

Not surprising that these daring thieves would attempt prison breaks and succeed. In 2002 Dragan Mikic, a founding member, escaped from a French jail while fellow members fired assault rifles at the guards, pinning them down while Mikic escaped.

Never shying away from a challenge, Milan Poparic, arrested for his involvement in the 2003 Graf robbery, escaped from a Swiss prison with a ladder and accomplices firing automatic weapons at guards.

Much like their larger-than-life heists, the prison break of Poparic was no different. During exercise time in the yard, a van crashed through the prison’s front gate. They then deployed a ladder into the yard, allowing Poparic and Adrian Albrecht, a convinced kidnapper, to escape.

Authorities believe Poparic is one of the Pink Panther leaders and a founding member.

What’s Next for the Pink Panthers?

While the Bosnian war affected millions living in the region, only a handful turned to a life of crime. Unwittingly, the military imparted the skills necessary for the Panthers to flourish on the international jewel heist stage.

The Pink Panthers have a long history of non-violence, yet that may change as veteran members step down. As much of the group’s inner circle approaches their 60s, most will choose or be forced to retire. The Pink Panthers still have some wind in their sails.

On June 28, 2022, several men wearing newsboy hats and suits entered The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF) in Maastricht, Netherlands carrying guns and sledgehammers. The thieves walked off with ten pieces, including a necklace with a rare yellow diamond clocking in at 114 carats.

Sources

ABC Good Morning America. “$65 Million Heist: Daring Robbery Caught on Tape.” ABC New York. April 12, 2009.

Cascone, Sarah. Dutch Police Are Closing In on the So-Called ‘Pink Panther Gang’ Behind the Astonishing Daytime Diamond Heist at TEFAF Maastricht. ArtNet, March 6, 2023, https://news.artnet.com/art-world/police-name-pink-panther-gang-tefaf-heist-suspects-2265612

Chiu, Richard. Pink Panthers: Europe’s mysterious gang of jewelery thieves. Jewellery Magazine: Special Art Report. https://www.jewellermagazine.com/Article2/8486/Pink-Panthers-Europes-mysterious-gang-of-jewellery-thieves

INTERPOL (2010). “INTERPOL Pink Panthers project meeting brings together international investigators.” https://www.interpol.int/es/Noticias-y-acontecimientos/Noticias/2010/INTERPOL-Pink-Panthers-project-meeting-brings-together-international-investigators

Samuels, David. ‘The Pink Panthers: A tale of diamonds, thieves, and the Balkans.’ The New Yorker, April 5, 2010. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/04/12/the-pink-panthers

Smash and Grab. Directed by Havana Marking, performances by Tomislav Tom Benzon, Daniel Vivian, and Jasmin Topalusic, Roast Beef Productions, 2013.

Yugoslavia. (2023, March 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslavia