The three Montenegrin nationals are being held responsible for robberies at jewelry stores in central Milan, police said on Tuesday. The incriminated coups took place between 2019 and 2022, the most recent on January 12.
The arrested are 40, 43 and 53 years old. Two fake Beretta pistols, cartridges and clothing were found in an apartment. Including those that the criminals had used in the raids. One of those arrested had already been wanted for a robbery of a luxury jeweler in Milan in 2012.
The Pink Panther gang has been active in around 20 countries – including Austria – and has around 220 members, most of whom come from the countries of former Yugoslavia. According to Interpol, which set up its own department to track them, the highly professional gang has stolen jewelry worth 330 million euros since 1999. It owes its name to British investigators after perpetrators hid a diamond in a cosmetics jar during a burglary in London in 2003 – as in the US film series “Pink Panther” by Blake Edwards.
Two members already convicted
Two Serbian members of the notorious Pink Panther gang were found guilty last September in the Innsbruck regional court of the crime of aggravated robbery, among other things. The main defendant, who was involved in eleven jeweler robberies in Innsbruck, Kitzbühel, Vienna, Linz and Amstetten between 2011 and 2017 either himself or in the organization, was finally sentenced to nine years in prison.
Source: Nachrichten
