Four Serbians suspected of being members of the
Pink Panthers gang, which was involved in a AED55m ($15m) robbery at Wafi Mall
in Dubai in 2007, have been arrested by Greek police, it was announced on
Saturday.
Police said the four Serbian suspects had been
involved in around 30 jewellery shop burglaries in Greece, the Athens News
Agency reported.
The Dubai Wafi Mall robbery was a key driver in the
creation of Interpol’s Project Pink Panthers in 2007 to coordinate global
activities after DNA profiles sent by the UAE from the Dubai robbery were
matched against others submitted to the Interpol General Secretariat from a
robbery in Lichtenstein in 2006, revealing that the armed robbery ring was
active not just in Europe, but around the world.
The main objective of Project Pink Panthers is to
centralise information related to the suspects of such crimes, identifying
material, the crimes in which they are involved in, and their criminal
partnerships and contacts.
The group is believed to include approximately 800
individuals responsible for nearly 300 robberies in 35 countries since 1999,
with the value of stolen jewellery estimated at more than $485m.
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