subject: Pink Panther Responsible For Jewellery Theft? [print this page] Montenegrin Rifat Hadziahmetovic has been extradited from Spain to Japan where he will face charges relating to the theft of jewellery. The Tokyo prosecutors alleged that he stole a tiara estimated to be worth around 284 million yen (around 32.18 million) from a shop in the heart of Tokyo.
In the robbery which took place in the Ginza district of Tokyo on June 14th 2007 the defendant and another member of his Pink Panther gang face charges after allegedly spraying tear gas into the eyes of store assistants then proceeding to steal the jewellery before escaping on bicycles.
The arrest came after a series of big blows to the gang who did seem unstoppable at one point. The majority of the members of the gang come from Yugoslavia, they have a long history of stealing valuable jewellery items.
The criminal gang is thought to have stolen jewellery worth hundreds of millions of pounds in over thirty countries stretching as far back as ten years ago.
The Pink Panther gang are also thought to have stolen some very valuable gems from a different Ginza jewellery store in 2004.
The accused Mr Hadziahmetovic was finally arrested in Cyprus in 2009 after a warrant for his arrest was issued due to his stealing of valuable watched in Spain- which is where he was sent. His extradition was then sought by Japan
Another suspect called Radovan Jelusic has also been arrested. He was discovered in May attempting to use a fake Croatian passport. He was wanted in Japan, Cyprus and a whole host of other countries.
The Pink Panther gang were given their name after British police detectives discovered a diamond ring hidden within a jar of face cream mimicking the incident in the 1963 film starring Peter Sellers.
