Two members of the notorious “Pink Panther” jewel thief group arrested by Spanish police

ON Wednesday November 4, Spanish police announced that they have detained two suspected members of the infamous Pink Panther group of international jewel thieves and promised further details at a press conference scheduled in Las Palmas on Thursday.

Authorities recovered valuables worth more than €1 million which were stolen by the Panthers from a jewellery shop on the island of Fuerteventura, part of Spain’s Canary Islands.

The group is said to be made up of criminals from paramilitary circles in the former Yugoslavia. Interpol estimate that they have made off with over €330 million worth of merchandise after over 380 robberies on high end stores in Europe, the United States, the Middle East and Asia.

The group´s notoriety comes from their headline grabbing heists including one famous occasion in 2007 when they drove two cars through the window of a jewellery store in a Dubai shopping mall and stole €11 million worth of goods in a raid which lasted less than sixty seconds.

In 2008 they disguised themselves as women and took €85 million of merchandise from the Harry Winston jewellers in Paris.

The group got their nickname after detectives in the UK discovered a diamond ring concealed in a jar of face cream, a ploy which was used in the 1963 Peter Sellers´ comedy “The Pink Panther.”