'Pink Panther' heist: Fourth suspect to go on trial, Dubai Police reveals

Police chief vows to keep looking for gang members still at large after daring Wafi robbery in 2007

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Gulf news archives
Gulf news archives

Dubai: Borko Ilincic, the fourth member to be arrested of the eight-member Pink Panther gang involved in the infamous Wafi heist in 2007, has been transferred to public prosecution and will be put on trial for armed robbery, police said.

On April 15, 2007, a gang of thieves brazenly drove two vehicles into Wafi Centre, smashed the vitrine of Graft jewellery store and escaped with jewellery and watches worth around Dh55 million in less than a minute.

Dubai Police Chief Major General Khamis Mattar Al Mazeina revealed the latest details in a press conference on Monday of the arrest and other ongoing efforts to bring in other members linked to the robbery.

The Pink Panther gang, so dubbed by the UK Police force in 2003, is now believed to have some 800 members and have carried out nearly 300 robberies in 35 countries since 1999, with the total value of stolen jewellery estimated at more than 350 million euros (more than Dh1.4 billion), according to Interpol.

Maj Gen Al Mazeina said Serbian national Ilincic, 34, was arrested in Monaco in a car accident.

Dubai Police asked that Ilincic be handed over for trial, but he was transferred to Switzerland and then extradited to his country of residence, Serbia.

Early in 2014, Ilincic was arrested in Spain and was finally handed over to Dubai Police’s Criminal Investigation Department on October 14, 2015, as he had a red notice issued against him by them.

“Since 2007, we have been working very closely with the Interpol and many police forces in Europe, especially the German Federal Police,” Maj Gen Al Mazeina said, adding that the Wafi heist led to the creation of Interpol’s ‘Project Pink Panthers’ in 2007, a taskforce dedicated to their crimes.

A press release by Interpol said that the 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.

Ilincic had committed similar crimes in Monaco and Switzerland, police said.

Maj Gen Al Mazeina said that two suspects, Nicola Milat, 33, and Milan Mitli, 52, both Serbians, were arrested in Dubai within weeks of the robbery in 2007.

Milat was sentenced to 10 years in jail for aiding and abetting the robbery, and was deported in 2013. He helped arrange the gang’s entry to the UAE, and provided logistical help.

Mitlićwas tried and acquitted of the charge of possession of stolen items.

Maj Gen Al Mazeina said a third suspect, Dragan Djor, who used the alias Martin Sovoboda, was extradited to the UAE in 2009 after being caught in the Netherlands returning a rented car that was used by members of the gang.

After investigation, Djor was deported as it was found out he was not involved in the Wafi heist.

Another two suspects, Poznan Dusko from Bosnia and Ljepoja Milan from Serbia, have been identified as suspects in the Wafi incident but are serving time in other countries,

“Once they are done serving their sentence we will extradite them to the UAE,” he said.

Milan is serving a seven-year jail term in Liechtenstein since 2010, after being arrested in France in 2008, Maj Gen Al Mazeina said. Milan is expected to be released in 2017.

“Similarly, [after] being arrested in Monaco and deported later to Liechtenstein, [Poznan Dusko] is serving time in jail until 2019,” he added.

The last two suspects who have not been brought to justice are Bojana Mitic and Lazarevic Mladen, both Serbians, who are still at large in Serbia.

Dubai Police have issued red notices against both of them.

“We kept our promise of catching every single person involved in the incident, and we will continue to look for the other two members,” Maj Gen Al Mazeina said.

He thanked the international community for their confidence in Dubai Police, and thanked all teams and people involved in the investigation.

Maj Gen Al Mazeina repeated his famous line from Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers documentary, “Do not play with us, because we are not playing”.

The shattered sliding door of the Wafi City after a group of armed men storm a jewellery shop 15 April 2007.

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