Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers Page #5

And if I can only say what else

we found, inside of the safe!

We found a fake penis!

You say dildo, no?

And I bet you they didn't declare

that to the police!

HE LAUGHS:

What do they do with the jewels?

We don't know exactly.

What we know, the jewels are going

very fast out of the country

to where they committed the robbery.

The day after,

the jewels are disappeared.

We think they are going in Italy

or in Montenegro or Serbia

and after, it is sold.

So, what do you do

with the diamonds?

We bring the stones over here

to our contact in Belgrade

but he doesn't have a market

in the former Yugoslavia.

He has to sell abroad

but maybe, I don't know, Antwerp?

We would do this job ourselves

but it's very risky abroad

because you make an offer,

you give it to the guy,

they take it and it's a set-up

and bang. You're killed.

No, we stay in the Balkans.

TRANSLATION:

What do you do, then,

do you hide it, do you swallow it?

HE LAUGHS:

They had a false passport and

they were about to cross the border

very easily, by plane, by car,

or by train and for them

it was difficult to follow them and

to know what they are going to do.

When they go back to the country,

there was like a protection,

they knew nobody is going to come

to Montenegro or to Serbia to

pick them there,

even if you have an arrest warrant,

because some of them

were involved with the politicians

and so it was very difficult,

so they knew that as soon as

I have made my robbery,

I go back to the country -

there I'm protected.

That's right, in the Balkans

they speak of the pinks

like Robin Hood.

But that's not reality.

Normally, about the guys we know,

the money they use or they have

they're not going to give that

for the Red Cross or...

an association in Montenegro.

You have some who will reinvest

some money in drugs,

some who put the money in real estate

and some just use the money

for fun.

Then the pink starts changing.

He starts gambling, going out

all the time, the money that we had,

we start to rapidly spend it more

and more.

And then we start arguing.

I wanted to somehow attract him

to live a different kind of life.

I thought perhaps he needs only one

more job and he would change.

It would change his life.

But I saw that he wouldn't

change for anything or anybody.

He said he wanted me to continue

my life and that he didn't know

if his life would ever change.

Then I gave up on him.

MILITARY MARCHING CHAN My name is Green

and I'm from Bosnia-Herzegovina.

I don't consider myself as one

of Pink Panthers but I am connected.

In 1996,

I joined the special operation unit

because I knew that the contacts

in the Serbian security service

would allow me

job benefits in the future.

My first criminal job in Bosnia

was importing stolen cars

from Europe.

The second job was human

trafficking for prostitution,

predominantly

from Ukraine and Moldova.

So, it is only the third phase that

we do drugs, cocaine and diamonds.

Nothing in diamonds could be done

outside the Serb secret service.

America asked the United Nations

to prevent diamond smuggling

because this war in Sierra Leone

was financed by diamond trade.

The Americans requested every diamond

sold in Sierra Leone

had to have a certificate

about its origin and everything,

so we actually, my group and myself,

learned how to make certificates and

how to make clean illegal diamonds

that are ready for the market.

The first contract with

Pink Panthers was when I started

the diamond business in Antwerp.

They would bring diamonds to me

and my team would process it,

forging diamond certificates

and inputting real information

from Sierra Leone that was

mined in this and that place

and it has original certificates.

The entire genesis, America asked

the United Nations to establish.

The diamonds are cut, reshaped,

but they get smaller.

If it was 30 carats, it is now 15.

They are clean in every

sense of the word.

It's not possible to prove

they are not clean.

Our biggest clients are Americans.

I will say, although I've never been

to America, my diamonds

are on the hands of the brides.

I receive information, Al-Qaeda

also purchase diamonds.

Diamonds have a good exchange value

because they don't leave

electronic trace.

Every transaction over 15,000 euros

or dollars is controlled.

But who controls diamonds? Nobody.

You can come out with a tiny

bag full of diamonds

and you can buy a bowl

filled with cocaine.

The real...

the first step on the real work

on the Pink Panthers is 2007,

when Monaco pushed Interpol

to make a project work...

to create this

Project Pink Panther.

And the real job, for me,

began at this time.

Because at this time, we began

to say, "OK, they are linked,

"they are reselling.

"A lot of these teams are linked

and working in all Europe.

"And we have to do this project

"so we can put all the information

together."

If we take one example, this guy,

we see that he

is connected to this guy

because they were arrested

together, in 2004.

And at the same time,

he is connected with this guy

because they have done

a robbery together.

Because we know that there are,

between some groups,

like, a small competition -

who is going to make

the biggest robbery.

And we know that there are

some targets in the world

and the first one who is going

to make that will take...

a little bit, like,

take the lead on the other teams.

Well, the night of the incident,

it was just a regular night out,

hanging out with some friends.

And I get a call

from a friend of mine

who informs me that there's

a big robbery going on at Wafi.

She tells me that

her husband's there

and he's just sent her,

on BlackBerry,

a video shot of what's happening.

CONFUSED SHOUTING

I immediately headed out to Wafi

and I just saw police

cordoning off the area around it.

CONFUSED SHOUTING

I was standing at the entrance

and started clipping pictures

and trying to see what's going on

and what's happened.

Out comes the door -

the Dubai police chief.

The first words that have come

out of his mouth that night was,

"These were definitely not Arabs.

"This was too well-organised."

CONFUSED SHOUTING

So what happened?

You went straight to the mall?

Yes, I went straight and I meet

my commanders, also, in the area.

And we closed the places

and we find some glass

is on the ground

and the evidence from

all the things.

And we must be careful about the

place and that's what we're doing.

The cars have come out of

this main doorway,

that's right behind us,

drove straight through

onto this road

which connects them

to the outside of the mall

and into the highway,

where we're going to retrace

the route that they've taken,

right now.

From this point onwards,

to the highway,

there are no traffic lights.

So the guys had more or less

clear access to the roads.

So the thieves dumped the cars,

set fire to them,

jumped into their getaway car

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