Balkan Ties to Huge Jewel Theft?

French police reckon that the Dec. 4 robbery at a Paris Harry Winston shop may be the work of the Pink Panther gang, a group of former Yugoslavs notorious for their Hollywood-style jewel robberies in Monaco and other tony locales over the past decade.

The thieves, dressed in women’s wigs and clothing, took $108 million worth of diamond rings, necklaces and luxury watches from the boutique last week, in spite of the shop’s security guards and cameras and Christmas shoppers and tourists on the nearby Champs-Elysees. A Paris prosecutor’s office spokesperson described the lightning-fast robbery as “very well organized.” The four robbers knew the store’s layout and called employees by their first names. An organized crime police source told the Guardian, “We’re dealing with real pros here.”


France’s Largest, Among World’s Costliest

Police said that the robbery was France’s largest and among the world’s costliest. In 2003, robbers plundered more than 120 vaults in the diamond town of Antwerp, Belgium, stealing $100 million or more worth of jewels in what was then considered the largest-ever jewel theft. Insurer Lloyds of London has offered a record $1 million reward for the recovery of the Harry Winston jewelry.

Investigators confiscated the shop’s surveillance cameras and believe that the Paris robbery follows the Pink Panthers’ modus operandi: audacious, clever and lucrative. In Biarritz, for example, the gang coated a bench across the street from their shop of choice with fresh paint to discourage potential witnesses from sitting there. In Dubai last year, eight gangsters in masks rammed two limousines into the front window of a high-end shopping mall, and stole $11 million worth of jewelry and watches from Graff jewelers in 90 seconds. Interpol has blamed the group for thefts in 19 countries in Europe, Asia and the Persian Gulf worth more than $150 million over the past decade.

Last week, a French court convicted Serbian nationals Boban Stojkovic and Goran Mikic to six and 10 years for robberies committed between 2001 and 2003, with loot totaling $9.8 million. Sentenced in absentia to 15 years was their boss, Serbian national Dragan Mikic, who escaped from a French prison in 2005. All are believed to be part of the Pink Panther gang, which acquired its nickname in 2004, after police found a $740,000 gem hidden in a jar of face cream in the London home of a Montenegrin national.

-- Beth Kampschror