Earlier this month, Greek authorities arrested three Serbian members of the group, among them Olivera Vasic Cirkovic, a former member of the Yugoslavian national basketball team.
According to Interpol, the Pink Panther groups has been active since 1999, and they are believed to have robbed some €300 million (US$400 million) worth of jewelry. The group is composed predominantly of  nationals of former Yugoslav countries and operates in Europe, United States, Middle East and Asia.
The Pink Panthers are notable for their swift and carefully planned robberies, sometimes with elements of Hollywood flair. In 2007, the gang drove a car through the window of a Dubai jewelry store, and in less than a minute, made off with jewelry worth around €11 million (US$14.7 million). In 2009, a man believed to belong to the group strolled into a Parisianjewelry store wearing a suit and a Humphrey Bogart style fedora. Wielding a gun, the reportedly polite robber collected US$16 million in gems and watches and then casually strolled out.
Interpol’s Pink Panthers project provides assistance to law enforcement agencies in the countries where the gang operates. “It centralizes data on the crimes and criminals, analyses the information, and builds networks of investigators,” according to the project’s website. Thanks to this centralized database, investigators across borders can discover links between individuals and robberies that would otherwise go unnoticed.
Previously arrested members of the group include Radovan Jelusic (Montenegrin), Bojan Vuckovic (Serbian), Nicolaj Ivanovic and Zoran Kostic (Serbian), Rifat Hadziahmetovic (Montenegrin), and Dusko Poznan (Bosnian).
Jelusic was found with a forged Croatian passport, making him one of several Balkan criminals who used forged Croatian passports to gain easier access to European countries.
