‘Pink Panther’ escapee captured in France

Diamonds are forever, freedom after a brazen heist isn't Keystone

A suspected member of the notorious Pink Panther gang of international jewel thieves who escaped from a Swiss prison in May has been arrested in the French city of Montpellier. Two other Pink Panthers who also recently broke out of Swiss prisons remain on the run.

Police detained the suspect, a 47-year-old man born in Montenegro with Macedonian and French nationalities, at his home on Monday, despite trying to flee out of a window when police arrived.

A former member of the French Foreign Legion, the suspect is wanted in several countries. Switzerland recently issued two international arrest warrants for him.

The suspect was serving a sentence in Switzerland for armed robbery, drugs and weapons’ offences but escaped from Bois-Mermet prison in Lausanne in May along with four other detainees by scaling the prison wall assisted by three accomplices.

Two of the five were arrested the next day at nearby Cheseaux-sur-Lausanne. Two others are still on the run, including a 45-year-old Serb who is also a suspected Pink Panther.

In a second dramatic prison break-out in canton Vaud in the space of three months, another Pink Panther serving seven years for robbing a jewellery store escaped from Orbe prison with a fellow inmate on July 26 after accomplices rammed a gate and overpowered guards with bursts from their AK-47s.

Speed and precision

The Pink Panthers emerged from the conflict in the former Yugoslavia to become the most successful jewel thieves in the world.

According to Interpol, the group has targeted luxury watch and jewellery stores in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States in heists that are often executed with breath-taking speed and precision, netting more than €330 million (CHF405 million) since 1999.

Interpol dubbed them the Pink Panther gang, after the 1964 film in which Peter Sellers – as the bungling Inspector Clouseau – has to track down a massive pink diamond. It isn’t known whether members themselves use that name. The gang is estimated to have around 220 members.

Swiss police said there didn’t appear to be any danger to the public, since killing wasn’t part of the gang’s usual methods. But they point out they are dealing with people who were involved in the armed forces during the war in former Yugoslavia.