David Samuels, A Reporter at Large, <http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=2010-04-12#folio=042> "The Pink Panthers," The New Yorker, April 12, 2010, p. 42
Read the full text of this article in the digital edition. <http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=2010-04-12#folio=042> (Subscription required.) April 12, 2010 Issue ABSTRACT: A REPORTER AT LARGE about a gang of jewel thieves known as the Pink Panthers. On May 20, 2003, two thieves walked into the jewelry store Graff, in London, and, in less than three minutes, made off with more than thirty million dollars' worth of diamonds. It was the biggest jewel heist in British history. One of the thieves, who was raised in Montenegro, was reputed to be one of the leaders of a spectacularly inventive, and elusive, gang of jewel thieves called the Pink Panthers. The London robbery was followed by other Pink Panther heists, in Europe and Asia; the take from these robberies approached a quarter of a billion dollars. In frustration, detectives in London, Paris, Brussels, Geneva, and Tokyo, working through Interpol and Europol, began pooling information about the Panthers. Over the past year, the writer spoke with seventeen detectives, in ten countries, who are tracking the Panthers. Belgian detective André Notredame believes that the core of the Panther operation consists of between twenty and thirty experienced thieves. Dozens of other facilitators in various European cities provide logistical assistance. Since 2002, Notredame says, the Panthers had robbed a hundred and fifty-two jewelry stores. Describes a robbery committed in Dubai. Mentions Dusko Poznan, a thief who was hit by a car in Monaco and then arrested at the hospital. In the fall of 2007, Interpol created the Pink Panther working group. Mentions André Muhlberger and Milan Ljepoja. Geneva detective Yan Glassey believes that the Panthers originated as a gang from Cetinje, Montenegro, but grew into a wider Balkan collective. Mentions Dragan Mikic. Criminal gangs became dominant forces in Serbia during the Balkan conflicts of the nineties, and they were further empowered by Western sanctions which gave them a stranglehold on the markets for gasoline, cigarettes, and other staples. Describes how Slobodan Milosevic helped turn Serbia into a criminal state. Mentions the novel "Gorilla" (1974), which was inspired by the life of Serbian thug Stefan Markovic. Six years ago, two Serbs, Djordje Rasovic and Aleksandar Radulovic, stole the Comtesse de Vendôme necklace from a Tokyo boutique. According to Milutin Dacovic, a retired criminal, the higher ranks of the Panther organization include a number of Serbian ex-soldiers, but the diamond trafficking was directed mainly by criminals from Italy, Russia, Israel, and Holland. In Montenegro, banditry may be even more deeply entrenched than it is in Serbia. Mentions Milo Djukanovic and Ratko Knezevic. The writer met with a Panther who called himself Novak. Novak said there were four main Panther groups, originating from a single group of diamond thieves from Montenegro. After a robbery, the jewels were handed off to a member of the team, who then drove to a rendezvous near a highway. The diamonds would be inspected by the buyer. Novak suggested that many of the jewels were recut in Antwerp and then shipped to Israel, where they reëntered the legitimate diamond market as "new" stones. Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/04/12/100412fa_fact_samuels#ixzz0l1n pVxOs [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ =============== Group Moderator: [email protected] page at http://magazine.sorabia.net for more informations about current situation in Serbia http://www.sorabia.net Slusajte GLAS SORABIJE nas talk internet-radio (Serbian Only) http://radio.sorabia.net Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sorabia/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sorabia/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
