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Speaker 1: My name is Zavikonnen.

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Speaker 2: I am former police officer, was working in Paris and

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Speaker 2: was in charge the highest robberies of jewelries in Paris.

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Speaker 2: So I've been in the police during twenty five year.

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Speaker 3: Captain ervekon Nan was the lead investigator on multiple robberies

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Speaker 3: by the Pink Panthers in Paris starting in the early

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Speaker 3: two thousands. He saw firsthand how a group of Serbian

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Speaker 3: jewel thieves turned themselves into a global brand.

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Speaker 2: The name of Pink Panthers was given after the robbery

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Speaker 2: in London after the graft.

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Speaker 3: Robberies back in two thousand and three, two men in

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Speaker 3: expensive suits entered a Graph jewelry store on New Bond

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Speaker 3: Street in London's West End. One of them was wearing

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Speaker 3: a conspicuous black wig that a security guard later said

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Speaker 3: looked like a cat. It was the middle of the

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Speaker 3: day and this luxury shopping district was full of people. Suddenly,

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Speaker 3: one of the men pulled out a gun, the other

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Speaker 3: a hammer. Three minutes later, the pair walked out into

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Speaker 3: the busy London streets with over thirty million dollars worth

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Speaker 3: of diamonds. Graphs sell some of the world's most exclusive,

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Speaker 3: expensive jewelry and high end watches. This was the first

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Speaker 3: time the Pink Panthers had targeted them, but the Panthers

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Speaker 3: would develop a taste for what Graph offers and would

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Speaker 3: return to them when they struck the Waffy Mall in Dubai. Now,

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Speaker 3: most of the jewels from this first Graph heist were

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Speaker 3: never recovered, but at least one was.

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Speaker 2: The name of Pink Panthers was given by the newspapers

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Speaker 2: in England because our colleagues in London they found diamonds

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Speaker 2: in a pot of cream.

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Speaker 1: Cream.

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Speaker 3: It was a jar of face scream and inside police

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Speaker 3: found a blue diamond worth seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

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Speaker 3: The thieves had left it behind when they made their

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Speaker 3: escape from London.

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Speaker 2: Okay, the fun of diamonds and it was a reference

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Speaker 2: to a movie, Pink Panther, and so the name was

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Speaker 2: given to this gang.

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Speaker 1: At this time.

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Speaker 3: It was something right out of the classic Peter Sellers

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Speaker 3: movie Return of the Pink Panther. The name given by

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Speaker 3: the British press stock media across Europe just loved it.

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Speaker 3: But this was not the first time the newly branded

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Speaker 3: Pink Panthers had struck. In fact, the Pink Panthers was

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Speaker 3: simply a new label for a vast underworld network that

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Speaker 3: was already running like a well oiled machine, and vlad

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Speaker 3: and Lazarevich, b Yana Mitch and Milan Lipoya were just

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Speaker 3: three of its latest recruits. I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a

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Speaker 3: journalist based in Eastern Europe, and I'm going to take

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Speaker 3: you into the world of Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves.

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Speaker 4: The most daring and successful diamond thieves in the world.

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Speaker 5: Thirty to forty seconds in.

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Speaker 6: Out They've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuables.

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Speaker 3: Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store

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Speaker 3: in London and walked out with sixty six million dollars

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Speaker 3: in jewels. They called the Pink pantherst They're a loosely

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Speaker 3: connected group of over educated, underemployed, ambitious young people who

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Speaker 3: rose from the ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the

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Speaker 3: nineteen nineties to commit elaborate smash and grab heists all

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Speaker 3: across the globe, often in broad daylight. This is infamous

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Speaker 3: international The Pink Panthers Story Episode two, Thick as Thieves.

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Speaker 3: Last time we heard how three young Serbian thieves had

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Speaker 3: traveled to Dubai from Eastern Europe in two thousand and seven.

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Speaker 3: The mastermind Mladen Lazarevich, the team's logistics lead, and Laden's

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Speaker 3: girlfriend Boyana Mitch and their friend Milan Li Poya. The

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Speaker 3: team had spent weeks in preparation for a robbery that

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Speaker 3: would make them all rich and famous. They drove two

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Speaker 3: Audi Sedans through the doors of the Waffy Mall and

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Speaker 3: straight into the Graph Jewelry store, making off with over

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Speaker 3: three million dollars worth of jewels, all in under a minute.

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Speaker 3: The heist was caught on cell phone video and posted

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Speaker 3: online within days. The Ping Panthers were a worldwide sensation,

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Speaker 3: but Conan of the Paris Police was well acquainted with

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Speaker 3: the Panthers long before Dubai, even before the British papers

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Speaker 3: gave them a name. In two thousand and one, they

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Speaker 3: had pulled off an ingenious robbery at one of the

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Speaker 3: most high jewelers in Paris called Boucheron.

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Speaker 7: They have attacked Beauchamp, the jewelry on the place b

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Speaker 7: Loom and they attack the main windows.

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Speaker 2: In fact, it was in the morning, very early.

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Speaker 1: The shop was still closed.

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Speaker 7: Okay, but the jewelries were still visible from outside.

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Speaker 3: Millions of dollars of jewels sitting on display right behind

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Speaker 3: the front window of a closed shop. It seems like

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Speaker 3: it's inviting trouble. But the store had a very special

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Speaker 3: security system.

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Speaker 7: It is a specific glasses, very sophisticated. It resists when

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Speaker 7: you eat the window with the ammer or axis. But

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Speaker 7: if the departure is very high the glass, you can

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Speaker 7: break it. So they burn, in fact, the windows with

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Speaker 7: I don't know if the name in English, with a

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Speaker 7: big flame.

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Speaker 3: It was a blowtorch. The thieves knew what they were

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Speaker 3: up against, and they had planned accordingly. They hid the

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Speaker 3: glass until it's brutal, neutralizing the security feature.

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Speaker 7: So they break the window like this, and they have

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Speaker 7: took an egglace in the jewry. It was maybe three millions.

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Speaker 5: It's very very smart.

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Speaker 2: It was like in a movie.

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Speaker 3: It was just like a movie. It's almost like that

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Speaker 3: was their intention.

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Speaker 8: I always thought that the most important part of their

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Speaker 8: exploits was this part of them being media said, you

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Speaker 8: hear these guys out there interested in their image, you know,

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Speaker 8: interested in the way how public perceives them.

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Speaker 3: The misvoint of is a Serbian film scholar who wrote

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Speaker 3: a film about the Being Panthers. For him, the Panthers'

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Speaker 3: style was clearly inspired by popular movies and television.

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Speaker 8: In a very same way John Dillinger appeared after a

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Speaker 8: very long stint in prison, you went to cinema in

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Speaker 8: order to learn to speak again. So he used to

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Speaker 8: mimic dialogue for films. And I think that Pink Panthers

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Speaker 8: are a lot like Dillager. You know, their actions resemble

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Speaker 8: a lot of films using masks or some kind of

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Speaker 8: disguise that's from Mission Impossible.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 8: It's a very curious thing, you know about how media

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Speaker 8: and movies informed.

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Speaker 3: This, and journalists have made that connection as well.

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Speaker 5: We've seem so many fun heist films.

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Speaker 9: We love a complicated crime that is well executed, and

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Speaker 9: apparently they do too. My name is Eric Pape. I'm

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Speaker 9: a longtime investigative reporter. I've worked extensively for Newsweek magazine,

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Speaker 9: The Daily Beast that I've written for Vid Debray publications

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Speaker 9: around the world.

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Speaker 3: Eric Pape was based in Paris, where he first started

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Speaker 3: covering the Panthers in the late two thousands.

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Speaker 9: I started writing about the Pink Panthers almost fifteen years ago.

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Speaker 9: They very much capture something in the popular imagination.

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Speaker 3: Pay reported on a number of the Pink Panthers heists

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Speaker 3: and some of the details struck him as especially creative.

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Speaker 9: Police this may be one of my favorites talked about

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Speaker 9: the four busty ladies who entered the Henry Winston jewelry

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Speaker 9: shop in Paris, threw out a magnum and a grenade,

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Speaker 9: and then they escaped with about one hundred million dollars

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Speaker 9: in jewelry. Police said that they believed it was Pink

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Speaker 9: Panthers in drag.

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Speaker 3: For the Panthers, plenty of heist is similar to making

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Speaker 3: a movie. Everyone has their part, their costume, They spend

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Speaker 3: weeks rehearsing, and on the day of the robbery it's

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Speaker 3: time to perform. Eric Paper calls another Panther heist where

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Speaker 3: distracting woodrobe choices play the key role.

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Speaker 9: I believe it was in two thousand and five and

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Speaker 9: it was in Centrope on the Mediterranean coast.

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Speaker 5: You would think they might want to dress in the

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Speaker 5: most mundane.

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Speaker 9: Clothes imaginable to blend in, but instead they dressed in

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Speaker 9: these loud, very tacky tourist T shirts and they went

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Speaker 9: into a store right near the waterfront.

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Speaker 5: Streets were thronged with tourists. That's something that they often do.

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Speaker 5: They often use.

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Speaker 9: Masses of people or traffic as a cover because a

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Speaker 9: you can try to blend in afterwards, you can change

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Speaker 9: out of that flashy T shirt, for example, but also

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Speaker 9: the traffic and all the people make it hard for

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Speaker 9: police to respond. So they basically walked through the tourist

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Speaker 9: bron streets that were impassable to cars, and they got

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Speaker 9: in a waiting speedboat.

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Speaker 3: A speedboat like something out of James Bond or maybe

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Speaker 3: the Italian Job.

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Speaker 5: It's brazen and very well thought through.

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Speaker 9: At the same time, if they just went in looking

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Speaker 9: like a couple of normal people like me and they left,

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Speaker 9: then would we be talking about them?

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Speaker 3: These early highs show how big patners develop a signature style,

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Speaker 3: the one that reflects a deliberate use of drama and misdirection.

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Speaker 9: They have made a tactical decision to draw attention to themselves.

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Speaker 9: It's kind of an interesting thing if you think about it.

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Speaker 9: The idea of having flashy when you want attention and

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Speaker 9: switching to to nondescript when you need to Everything is

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Speaker 9: thought through quite brilliantly.

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Speaker 5: It's almost like a magician.

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Speaker 9: The magician wants you looking somewhere, and they don't want

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Speaker 9: you looking somewhere else. And they have given so much

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Speaker 9: thought to what it's going to grab your attention and

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Speaker 9: what is going to not And in this case, the

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Speaker 9: you is all of the different witnesses.

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Speaker 5: Who are likely going to end up speaking to authorities.

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Speaker 9: So to me, it just gets at something really well crafted.

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Speaker 3: Crazy costumes, expensive cars, speedboats, all of it designed to

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Speaker 3: distract onlookers from the actual crime.

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Speaker 5: They want the wow factor.

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Speaker 9: And so I think strangely, by being extremely visible, by

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Speaker 9: dressing up these big, strong men, dressing up as women,

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Speaker 9: by doing all of these things that we associate with

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Speaker 9: being Panther films, with James Bond films, with countless heist films,

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Speaker 9: I think it actually makes it very very hard to

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Speaker 9: catch them, because it's not just someone walking in with

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Speaker 9: a gun saying this is a robbery and then running

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Speaker 9: away or jumping in a car. It's something so much

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Speaker 9: less probable than that that authorities would have a very

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Speaker 9: hard time predicting every one of these wild and crazy

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Speaker 9: crimes that they seemed to have committed.

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Speaker 3: Captain Irve Konnan of the Paris Police says, these early

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Speaker 3: years we're a kind of golden age for the Panthers.

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Speaker 7: Between two thousand and two thousand and seven, they had

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Speaker 7: a fantastic opportunity to rub everywhere in the world because

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Speaker 7: you were able to travel.

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Speaker 5: With false passport or for spassport.

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Speaker 1: It was easy.

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Speaker 7: You had no DNA, the TV was very bad and

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Speaker 7: sometimes did not exist, and Montenegro and Serbia there were

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Speaker 7: a lot of corruption in these countries, so they know

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Speaker 7: that as soon as they were in that country they

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Speaker 7: were not in danger. So there are ten years it

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Speaker 7: was open bar.

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Speaker 5: They were able to do everything they want in the world.

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Speaker 3: An open bar everywhere in the world. And though there

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Speaker 3: was no way to predict where the Pink Panthers would

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Speaker 3: strike next, their targets all shared a specific profile. Anywhere

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Speaker 3: the rich and famous gathered and shocked. They hit London,

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Speaker 3: Paris and Liechtenstein, Monaco and ski resorts in the French Alps.

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Speaker 3: And as their ambitions grew, so did the distance the

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Speaker 3: Panthers were willing to travel.

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Speaker 1: One was the guy we arrested.

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Speaker 7: We had wire tape on him and we understood that

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Speaker 7: he traveled in Japan, and after that we found picture

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Speaker 7: where he's in Japan with his girlfriend, so he was

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Speaker 7: going there to check if he was able to make

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Speaker 7: a robbery.

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Speaker 1: They were traveling everywhere in the world, and two major robberies.

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Speaker 7: Were committed in Tokyo by them, two major robberies.

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Speaker 4: So the pig Panther thing is kind of legendary in

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Speaker 4: Japan because it was one of the first international jewel

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Speaker 4: heights ever in the country.

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Speaker 3: Jake Adelstein is an investigative journalist who has been covering

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Speaker 3: crime and for thirty years. He literally wrote the book

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Speaker 3: on it. His memoir Tokyo Vice became a major TV

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Speaker 3: series he remembers one of these panther heists.

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Speaker 4: So, first of all, the crime took place in Kinza,

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Speaker 4: which is one of the most expensive places in Tokyo.

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Speaker 4: Even now, it's loaded with these high end shops like

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Speaker 4: Uivatan shops and Channel shops and Bulgary and these luxury

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Speaker 4: brands that are high end and the Japanese people of

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Speaker 4: certain wealth really love, and so it's also a place

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Speaker 4: where a very expensive high end jewelry.

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Speaker 3: It's May two thousand and seven, just two months after

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Speaker 3: the heist at the Wafimont. Two panthers arrived at Tokyo's

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Speaker 3: Narita Airport with their sites on a particularly valuable piece

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Speaker 3: of jewelry, a diamond encrusted tiara. They've given themselves two

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Speaker 3: months to put a plan in place. They study the

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Speaker 3: area carefully and decide to approach the story they've targeted

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Speaker 3: on bicycles Towards the end of the workday. The streets

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Speaker 3: will be crowded and they'll easily blend in.

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Speaker 4: It's five pm on June fourteenth. First came this guy

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Speaker 4: in wearing a suit, and then came another guy in

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Speaker 4: a white mask almost immediately after him. He shot the

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Speaker 4: tear gas in the faces of the clerks. They stole

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Speaker 4: this tierra and a necklace and other things worth about

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Speaker 4: the tier itself was worth like two million dollars, and

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Speaker 4: then they sold a necklace and other things were probably

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Speaker 4: worth maybe close to a million dollars. And they did

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Speaker 4: it all in about thirty two seconds. Thirty two seconds

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Speaker 4: they entered, they broke into it, they stole the stuff,

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Speaker 4: they were out of there within thirty two seconds, which

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Speaker 4: is kind of amazing.

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Speaker 3: This kind of thing never happens in Japan. The Tokyo

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Speaker 3: police are totally taken aback.

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Speaker 4: So the Japanese police were kind of baffled by this

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Speaker 4: crime because they came in fast and they left very fast,

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Speaker 4: and this was the time before Japan was covered in

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Speaker 4: closed circuit TV, so there wasn't great footage of these guys.

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Speaker 4: They didn't leave any fingerprints behind, even though they were

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Speaker 4: not wearing gloves, which really surprised anybody, and all they

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Speaker 4: did was take the merchandise they are aiming for.

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Speaker 3: But since the Waffi mol heist in Dubai, the Panther

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Speaker 3: brand of robbery had become all too familiar for law enforcement,

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Speaker 3: and the Tokyo police immediately have their suspicions.

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Speaker 4: From the very beginning, they suspected that these might be

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Speaker 4: members of the Pink Panther.

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Speaker 3: They also have one small bit of evidence. The thieves

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Speaker 3: dumbed the empty can of tear gas not far from

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Speaker 3: the jewelry store.

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Speaker 4: So they decided to go with the can of tear

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Speaker 4: gas and see what they could find. But they found

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Speaker 4: out that the spray was a mass market animal repellant,

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Speaker 4: which used in France to scare of wild dogs and

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Speaker 4: other animals.

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Speaker 3: This one clue is enough to convince them that the

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Speaker 3: crime is international in nature and that is enough to

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Speaker 3: bring an INTERPOL.

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Speaker 4: The Japanese police are incredibly good at cooperating with Interpol

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Speaker 4: and working with them even with the language barrier, and

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Speaker 4: making sure that the crime is perpetrated on Jepanesy soil,

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Speaker 4: and they want to capture the person. They're dedicated and

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Speaker 4: they spend lots of manpower in hours and they will

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Speaker 4: send people overseas to help gather the information to put

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Speaker 4: together the case.

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Speaker 3: With the help of INTERPAL, Japanese authorities are able to

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Speaker 3: track the serial number and they can to a military

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Speaker 3: surplus store in Marseille in the south of France. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 3: Tokyo police are able to piece together the timeline of

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Speaker 3: the heist.

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Speaker 4: So what the police were able to put together is

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Speaker 4: that they came in at five pm thirty two seconds.

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Speaker 4: They had stolen everything that they needed. They hopped on

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Speaker 4: bicycles about four hundred meters away. They threw away the

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Speaker 4: tear gas, They dropped the bicycle, They got in a car.

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Speaker 4: They took apart the tierra. They took off all the

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Speaker 4: diamonds what they couldn't use from the tier. They flushed

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Speaker 4: on the toilet. Then they headed in the Reda airport

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Speaker 4: and left. There is a possibility that they met with

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Speaker 4: the mistress of an Italian jewelry dealer before they left

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Speaker 4: and made a transaction there, But that's what police were

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Speaker 4: able to put together.

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Speaker 3: The Japanese authorities, together with Interpol, embark on an international

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Speaker 3: manhunt using global intelligence gathering and surveillance, and their diligence

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Speaker 3: pays off. One suspect is caught in two thousand and

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Speaker 3: nine in Cyprus, the other in twenty ten in Rome.

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Speaker 3: The jewels themselves were never recovered, but the details of

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Speaker 3: how these Pink Panthers dismantled the highly recognizable tiara into

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Speaker 3: loose stones points to another hallmark of the Pink Panther brand.

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Speaker 3: Not only do they know how to steal a two

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Speaker 3: million dollar piece of jewelry, they know how to sell it.

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Speaker 10: Now, let's talk about what you do if you've come

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Speaker 10: into possession of a large amount of stolen high end jewelry.

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Speaker 3: Scott Selby is the author of Flawless Inside, the largest

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Speaker 3: diamond heist in History. He's a leading expert on the

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Speaker 3: black market diamond trade.

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Speaker 10: The Panthers they like to hit high end shops high

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Speaker 10: end jewelry. These are things that are already polished, that

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Speaker 10: are already ready to be sold. They've been cut in

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Speaker 10: such a way to really have the highest value, to

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Speaker 10: look the most beautiful. There's a lot of things that

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Speaker 10: then come into play with how you fence those, depending

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Speaker 10: upon exactly what you stole and what kind of value

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Speaker 10: you're expecting to get back from it.

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Speaker 3: The panthers intentionally target the most expensive jewelry from the

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Speaker 3: most famous stores, but these are not the easiest items

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Speaker 3: to turn into quick cash.

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Speaker 10: Generally, they've stolen from high end, name brand jewelry stores,

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Speaker 10: and so with those you're going to be facing some

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Speaker 10: decisions pretty quickly, right because having a brand name associated

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Speaker 10: with a jewelry as well as the intricate design of

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Speaker 10: that jewelry gives it a high percent of the value.

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Speaker 10: Here's the problem is, if it's something recognizable, if it's

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Speaker 10: something that costs fifty million dollars, from some famous jeweler,

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Speaker 10: everybody in the business will know what it is and

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Speaker 10: anybody else would just google it, right, So then what

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Speaker 10: you would probably do is you would unfortunately have to

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Speaker 10: lose the craftsmanship of the jewelry as well as the

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Speaker 10: value of the brand by removing the individual stones from

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Speaker 10: it and melting down the gold. If you sell something

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Speaker 10: to a fence, particularly things that are harder to sell

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Speaker 10: on the rule of thumb that's been used for a

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Speaker 10: long time is ten cents on the dollar.

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Speaker 1: Right.

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Speaker 10: So now imagine that Tiffany's diamond. You've now removed the

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Speaker 10: polished diamond from the engagement ring and you've melted the

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Speaker 10: ring down for its silver value, which is tremendously less

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Speaker 10: than you know it being a finished product.

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Speaker 3: But let's be honest, when what you've stolen is worth

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Speaker 3: tens of millions of dollars, you can probably afford some markdowns.

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Speaker 3: And what about really big.

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Speaker 10: Stone, It's going to depend. Like let's say you have

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Speaker 10: a big necklace with the pink panther. Sometimes they've stolen

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Speaker 10: something where there's a primary stone that's large, famous enough

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Speaker 10: maybe even to be named. It's going to be something

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Speaker 10: really special that anybody in the world in the business

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Speaker 10: would recognize it.

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Speaker 3: Something for example, like the one hundred and twenty five

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Speaker 3: carrot diamond necklace known as a contest de vendome. The

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Speaker 3: panther stole that in two thousand and four. It was

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Speaker 3: worth an estimated thirty one point five million dollars.

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Speaker 10: So that one, let's put on the side. It's really

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Speaker 10: hard to move, but there's going to be a lot

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Speaker 10: of accompanying stones with it, and a lot of these

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Speaker 10: will be relatively generic, so it should be pretty easy

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Speaker 10: to move. They're probably going to be flawless. One carrot

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Speaker 10: maybe two carrot white diamonds. The first thing you're going

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Speaker 10: to want to do is look on it's called the girdle,

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Speaker 10: and what that basically is is if you have your

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Speaker 10: gemstone line flat, so you have a profile view. It's

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Speaker 10: going to be the widest part. It's a part that

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Speaker 10: divides the top and the bottom of the diamond, and

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Speaker 10: it's become common over the years for there to be

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Speaker 10: a laser inscription there. Then what you have to do

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Speaker 10: is you have to see if there's the equivalent of

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Speaker 10: a serial number or certification number or something.

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Speaker 3: There a certification that could identify the jam and tell

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Speaker 3: you exactly where it came from.

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Speaker 10: So that's the first thing they're going to look for,

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Speaker 10: is are their numbers on the side, And if there are,

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Speaker 10: that's a problem because anybody anywhere along the process could

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Speaker 10: look it up right. You could very easily polish those off,

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Speaker 10: but you need somebody that's in the business that polishes diamonds.

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Speaker 10: So that's something where you're going to need a corrupt

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Speaker 10: individual to work with.

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Speaker 3: Finding a corrupt individual in this shadowy world's called Selby's

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Speaker 3: talking about doesn't sound difficult. I mean, this is where

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Speaker 3: the Pink Panthers live. On CNN, Anderson Cooper talk to

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Speaker 3: filmmaker Havana Marking, who made a documentary about the Panthers,

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Speaker 3: about the group's extensive support network.

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Speaker 11: Diamonds are the key thing that they are professional at

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Speaker 11: and do the best at, mainly because they've got incredible

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Speaker 11: connections to diamond centers like Antwerp, a huge European center

396
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Speaker 11: of diamond trading. I was lucky enough to make a

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Speaker 11: contact of the Panthers called mister Green, who is a

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Speaker 11: fence and he's the person who they take the diamonds too.

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Speaker 11: He gets them recut, he creates completely new sort of

400
00:22:23,480 --> 00:22:27,240
Speaker 11: certificates of origin for them, and is able to he

401
00:22:27,359 --> 00:22:30,440
Speaker 11: has the connections to then sell them back into the

402
00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:32,919
Speaker 11: clean market.

403
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Speaker 10: So once he gets something into the legitimate stream of commerce,

404
00:22:38,840 --> 00:22:41,520
Speaker 10: you've got it made. Because one diamond could change hands

405
00:22:41,520 --> 00:22:43,880
Speaker 10: eight times in a week in Antwerp, Belgium.

406
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Speaker 3: Scott Selby again.

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Speaker 10: But the problem is is people there will remember certain

408
00:22:48,400 --> 00:22:50,960
Speaker 10: kinds of stones. These are people who really care about

409
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Speaker 10: what they're doing, and there's an artistic element to it.

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00:22:55,000 --> 00:22:57,720
Speaker 10: These are communities where people know each other and have

411
00:22:57,840 --> 00:23:00,560
Speaker 10: heard of things. So you can't just introduce basically the

412
00:23:00,600 --> 00:23:04,240
Speaker 10: big pendance stone from some necklace you stole in Japan.

413
00:23:04,600 --> 00:23:06,600
Speaker 10: You can't just introduce that on the other side of

414
00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:09,000
Speaker 10: the world and nobody has any questions, right.

415
00:23:09,080 --> 00:23:12,040
Speaker 3: Right, These rare stones might be the most valuable, but

416
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Speaker 3: they're also the hardest to fence without bringing a lot

417
00:23:14,920 --> 00:23:18,880
Speaker 3: of unwanted attention. Still, when you have the right connections,

418
00:23:19,160 --> 00:23:20,119
Speaker 3: you have options.

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Speaker 10: One choice is is you can sell it on so

420
00:23:22,760 --> 00:23:25,680
Speaker 10: the buyer knows it's stolen and they're comfortable with that.

421
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Speaker 10: And traditionally there's a market for very high end stones

422
00:23:29,760 --> 00:23:32,360
Speaker 10: in Hong Kong and Dubai where people might not ask

423
00:23:32,400 --> 00:23:35,119
Speaker 10: so many questions, right, So you could have people who

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Speaker 10: are willing to buy something like that. So that's one option.

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Speaker 3: Okay, but what if we're dealing with a stone that

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00:23:42,119 --> 00:23:44,320
Speaker 3: is a little too famous.

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Speaker 10: Something that's sort of unfortunate but sometimes needs to be done.

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Speaker 10: Is if you have something truly unusual, you may find

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00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:56,560
Speaker 10: yourself forced to cut it into smaller pieces. If you

430
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Speaker 10: show up with a thousand of these stones, the first

431
00:23:59,080 --> 00:24:01,680
Speaker 10: person to buy its going to know that it's stolen,

432
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Speaker 10: and there'll be a big discount involved, right, But the

433
00:24:05,440 --> 00:24:07,760
Speaker 10: person they sell it on to you will have no idea,

434
00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:09,920
Speaker 10: and the person after them and the person after them,

435
00:24:09,920 --> 00:24:12,959
Speaker 10: and these stones move fast, fast, fast, and Antwerp. They

436
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:15,359
Speaker 10: all go through Antwerpt, Belgium for the most part, and

437
00:24:15,400 --> 00:24:17,000
Speaker 10: the next thing you know, it'll be in your local

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00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:19,560
Speaker 10: strip model and then an engagement ring and you yourself

439
00:24:19,560 --> 00:24:21,639
Speaker 10: could be worreing an engagement ring with a stone that

440
00:24:21,760 --> 00:24:23,280
Speaker 10: was stroller and nobody would know.

441
00:24:27,760 --> 00:24:30,840
Speaker 3: Given how complicated it is to move stolen diamonds and

442
00:24:31,119 --> 00:24:34,119
Speaker 3: the criminal network required to do it, you have to

443
00:24:34,200 --> 00:24:41,119
Speaker 3: wonder about the economics. Is stealing diamonds actually a good business.

444
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:46,400
Speaker 3: My colleague Elon Greenberg spoke to Don Palmery, a master genmologist,

445
00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:50,440
Speaker 3: appraiser a gem certification and assurance lab in New York.

446
00:24:50,840 --> 00:24:55,640
Speaker 6: We are greaters and certifiers of diamonds and gemstones, and

447
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:57,800
Speaker 6: we do a great deal of work for the law

448
00:24:57,880 --> 00:25:02,320
Speaker 6: enforcement and insurance industries. I've been involved in so many

449
00:25:02,359 --> 00:25:05,320
Speaker 6: of these cases afterwards, when they begin to recover some

450
00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:09,399
Speaker 6: of the jewelry and especially things like big diamonds that

451
00:25:09,440 --> 00:25:12,840
Speaker 6: have been recut and then try to remarket through the

452
00:25:12,920 --> 00:25:19,120
Speaker 6: legitimate marketplace. Sadly, there's always a market for hot diamonds

453
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,920
Speaker 6: and jewels of great value, and very sadly it's tied

454
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:26,840
Speaker 6: right back to our industry. So you have to understand

455
00:25:26,880 --> 00:25:30,880
Speaker 6: that these are stones that travel around the entire globe.

456
00:25:31,240 --> 00:25:34,199
Speaker 6: They go from one major auction to another. They go

457
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,800
Speaker 6: from the hands of wealthy people in Asia, Europe, the

458
00:25:37,880 --> 00:25:39,800
Speaker 6: United States, South America.

459
00:25:40,640 --> 00:25:44,760
Speaker 12: Once this compromiser degraded, right, how do they recoup that

460
00:25:44,880 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 12: original value? How do you inflate it? I understand how

461
00:25:48,280 --> 00:25:50,680
Speaker 12: you decrease it, but how do you increase.

462
00:25:50,280 --> 00:25:54,000
Speaker 6: It again by getting a legitimate grading report on the

463
00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:57,639
Speaker 6: previously stolen stone. And the way to do that is

464
00:25:57,680 --> 00:26:01,119
Speaker 6: to in some way disguise it. Real way to disguise

465
00:26:01,200 --> 00:26:05,800
Speaker 6: it would be either to damage it where you're creating

466
00:26:06,080 --> 00:26:09,640
Speaker 6: flaws in the stone, or you recut it. But if

467
00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 6: you recut it enough, you can remove other tailtale identifying marks,

468
00:26:14,880 --> 00:26:18,679
Speaker 6: then the laboratory just grades it. They're grading tens of

469
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,920
Speaker 6: millions of diamonds every year, and I think some things

470
00:26:21,920 --> 00:26:23,320
Speaker 6: have slipped through the cracks.

471
00:26:23,680 --> 00:26:27,320
Speaker 12: So when someone pulls off a heist right and steals

472
00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:31,560
Speaker 12: millions of dollars worth of let's say, diamonds or other gemstones,

473
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:34,119
Speaker 12: it seems like then they fence it for pennies on

474
00:26:34,160 --> 00:26:36,680
Speaker 12: the dollar. Why don't they knock off a liquor store

475
00:26:36,760 --> 00:26:39,160
Speaker 12: like it seems like for all that effort and all that,

476
00:26:39,240 --> 00:26:42,399
Speaker 12: you know, it looks glamorous, but they're getting pennies. You

477
00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:45,639
Speaker 12: know why at an atm you know, it doesn't seem

478
00:26:45,680 --> 00:26:47,080
Speaker 12: like the margin is there.

479
00:26:47,280 --> 00:26:51,280
Speaker 6: Oh it is. Explain how first of all, the average

480
00:26:51,320 --> 00:26:54,680
Speaker 6: bank robbery they only get what a few thousand dollars anymore, three,

481
00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:58,200
Speaker 6: four or five thousand dollars. But if you gee, I

482
00:26:58,200 --> 00:27:00,880
Speaker 6: don't want to encourage your audience to think about this

483
00:27:00,920 --> 00:27:04,520
Speaker 6: as the next great thing to do. But we're talking

484
00:27:04,560 --> 00:27:09,480
Speaker 6: about small items with one of the greatest stores of

485
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:13,320
Speaker 6: inherent value. So if you've got a ten kara d

486
00:27:13,520 --> 00:27:17,760
Speaker 6: flawless diamond, you know, basically you're talking about a million

487
00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:19,879
Speaker 6: dollar stone. Let's say you only get two hundred thousand

488
00:27:19,920 --> 00:27:22,880
Speaker 6: dollars for it. What liquor store do you know has

489
00:27:22,920 --> 00:27:26,439
Speaker 6: two hundred thousand dollars? Think about any other thing of

490
00:27:26,480 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 6: great value. A bar of gold, I mean a bar

491
00:27:29,640 --> 00:27:32,919
Speaker 6: of gold. Let's say it's ten ounces. You know today's money.

492
00:27:33,840 --> 00:27:38,360
Speaker 6: What's it worth sixteen thousand dollars? And try running down

493
00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:40,880
Speaker 6: the street with a ten ounce bar gold in your pocket?

494
00:27:41,119 --> 00:27:44,639
Speaker 6: But with gems, it's a whole lot easier. It's very compact,

495
00:27:45,240 --> 00:27:51,080
Speaker 6: great storehouse of value.

496
00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:56,040
Speaker 3: Diamonds were always a high priority target for the Panthers,

497
00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:59,080
Speaker 3: but they also had a soft spot for high end watches.

498
00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:03,480
Speaker 3: Thorpe is a retired watch dealer with forty years of

499
00:28:03,520 --> 00:28:05,680
Speaker 3: experience in the business.

500
00:28:05,240 --> 00:28:07,640
Speaker 1: And now I'm spending my time as a full time

501
00:28:07,720 --> 00:28:10,919
Speaker 1: YouTuber and enjoying every minute of it. Mainly focused on

502
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:12,080
Speaker 1: anti watch crime.

503
00:28:12,560 --> 00:28:15,040
Speaker 3: Paul fell under the spell of watches early.

504
00:28:15,440 --> 00:28:17,920
Speaker 1: My dad was a big watch guy. I remember falling

505
00:28:17,960 --> 00:28:21,000
Speaker 1: in love with a TIMEX on another boy's risk at

506
00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:23,920
Speaker 1: school when I was five years old, and that was it.

507
00:28:23,960 --> 00:28:26,400
Speaker 1: I was bitten by the bug. I caught watch disease.

508
00:28:27,440 --> 00:28:31,040
Speaker 1: I've taken every known medication a man to cure it,

509
00:28:31,600 --> 00:28:32,639
Speaker 1: but it's never worked.

510
00:28:33,720 --> 00:28:37,800
Speaker 3: Paul's love of watches gives him an insider's understanding of

511
00:28:37,840 --> 00:28:39,280
Speaker 3: their appeal to thieves.

512
00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:41,520
Speaker 1: I think the big thing is with what is and

513
00:28:41,560 --> 00:28:43,920
Speaker 1: you've also mentioned diamonds. There is the fact that they

514
00:28:43,960 --> 00:28:48,719
Speaker 1: are easily transportable, They are obviously valuable, and therefore a

515
00:28:48,760 --> 00:28:53,000
Speaker 1: great desirable asset for the criminals because you can't get

516
00:28:53,000 --> 00:28:55,480
Speaker 1: on a plane with a million dollars in cash someone

517
00:28:55,520 --> 00:28:58,280
Speaker 1: who's going to stop and ask you questions. But you

518
00:28:58,360 --> 00:29:01,720
Speaker 1: can fit a million dollars with a diamonds in your pocket,

519
00:29:01,880 --> 00:29:03,800
Speaker 1: or a million dollar watch, and no one is going

520
00:29:03,840 --> 00:29:07,120
Speaker 1: to buy an eyelid. They retain a huge part of

521
00:29:07,160 --> 00:29:08,960
Speaker 1: their original value even when it's.

522
00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 3: Stolen, and that value has only grown over time.

523
00:29:12,160 --> 00:29:15,560
Speaker 1: The black market pre two thousand, I mean back then,

524
00:29:15,920 --> 00:29:19,000
Speaker 1: the value of our Rolex watch on the black market

525
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:21,440
Speaker 1: would have been about a third of its retail value,

526
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:26,520
Speaker 1: so still a decent return if you've got enough of them. Today,

527
00:29:26,680 --> 00:29:30,160
Speaker 1: by comparison, that same watch on the black market is

528
00:29:30,320 --> 00:29:34,400
Speaker 1: worth between eighty and one hundred percent of its retail value,

529
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:38,400
Speaker 1: and in some cases two hundred percent of its retail value,

530
00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:42,200
Speaker 1: despite the fact that it's stolen. Particularly since around about

531
00:29:42,240 --> 00:29:45,680
Speaker 1: I would say twenty seventeen, the luxury watch market has

532
00:29:45,720 --> 00:29:48,960
Speaker 1: exploded right across the world and certainly in London now.

533
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:50,440
Speaker 1: I mean, if you throw a stone in the are,

534
00:29:50,480 --> 00:29:52,880
Speaker 1: it's probably going to land and fall on a luxury watch.

535
00:29:52,960 --> 00:29:55,800
Speaker 1: They're easy to transport and that's why I believe the

536
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,440
Speaker 1: watch black market has in many instances taken over from drugs.

537
00:30:00,040 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 1: And I'm told that the value of luxury watches has

538
00:30:03,680 --> 00:30:06,640
Speaker 1: risen a lot faster than the value of illegal drugs

539
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,720
Speaker 1: on the street. So a lot of these gangs have

540
00:30:09,840 --> 00:30:13,280
Speaker 1: been taking their money out of drugs and putting it

541
00:30:13,280 --> 00:30:14,480
Speaker 1: into luxury watches.

542
00:30:14,920 --> 00:30:18,560
Speaker 3: From drugs to watches. Is it really such a better business.

543
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:21,440
Speaker 1: That it's risk versus reward for these criminals. If they're

544
00:30:21,520 --> 00:30:24,959
Speaker 1: caught with a kilo of Class A drugs, they're going

545
00:30:25,000 --> 00:30:26,880
Speaker 1: to go out to prison. In the UK, you're looking

546
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:29,800
Speaker 1: at say between ten and twelve years. If you steal

547
00:30:29,800 --> 00:30:32,240
Speaker 1: a luxury watch, you're probably going to be out in

548
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:35,120
Speaker 1: eighteen months. And if you look at the risk versus

549
00:30:35,160 --> 00:30:39,560
Speaker 1: the reward, if you steal three Richard Mills and a

550
00:30:39,640 --> 00:30:42,600
Speaker 1: dozen rolics in a twelve month period, that's going to

551
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:45,400
Speaker 1: met you somewhere in a reason of one point five

552
00:30:45,480 --> 00:30:48,680
Speaker 1: million pounds in cash, or wherever you take payment.

553
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,880
Speaker 3: With those kind of returns, it's no wonder that watches

554
00:30:51,920 --> 00:30:55,120
Speaker 3: grew in popularity with the criminal class, and like other

555
00:30:55,200 --> 00:31:00,200
Speaker 3: jewelry stores, watch dealers have had to adapt.

556
00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:03,800
Speaker 1: Two thousand and ten, we were pretty regular, you know,

557
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:06,720
Speaker 1: no real more security than anyone else at any other

558
00:31:06,840 --> 00:31:09,560
Speaker 1: jewelry store. There were times when we'd even leave our

559
00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:11,800
Speaker 1: door open, but it got to the stage where we

560
00:31:11,800 --> 00:31:15,200
Speaker 1: would need well, I'll give you an example my last shop,

561
00:31:15,880 --> 00:31:18,880
Speaker 1: which was fairly small, I think we spent seventy five

562
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:24,800
Speaker 1: pounds on security. Smoke cloaks. Smoke cloak is it's just

563
00:31:24,800 --> 00:31:26,880
Speaker 1: a simple box. You hit a button and it fills

564
00:31:26,920 --> 00:31:29,040
Speaker 1: the room with smoke so that people can't see where

565
00:31:29,040 --> 00:31:32,680
Speaker 1: they're going. I had laser beam alarms around my property

566
00:31:32,800 --> 00:31:37,760
Speaker 1: at home, another fifty sixty thousand pounds for security. Still

567
00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:41,000
Speaker 1: front doors, windows that were unbreakable.

568
00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:45,600
Speaker 3: But with the increased security at watchdealers, their stores themselves

569
00:31:45,640 --> 00:31:49,760
Speaker 3: have become less attractive with thieves. Now they've taken to

570
00:31:49,880 --> 00:31:51,840
Speaker 3: targeting individuals instead.

571
00:31:53,640 --> 00:31:56,040
Speaker 1: These people are going to the smarter areas where the

572
00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:59,840
Speaker 1: high end boutiques are and the fashionable, swanky restaurants are

573
00:32:00,080 --> 00:32:03,240
Speaker 1: to find their victims, and they find them in the street.

574
00:32:03,360 --> 00:32:06,560
Speaker 1: They can have spotters inside working inside the restaurant, a

575
00:32:06,600 --> 00:32:10,800
Speaker 1: waiter or a waitress. It's very simple. They serve a customer,

576
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,640
Speaker 1: they see they're wearing one hundred grand watch, they WhatsApp

577
00:32:13,960 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 1: their friends outside and then when he leaves, they'll follow him.

578
00:32:18,440 --> 00:32:22,640
Speaker 1: No strike. But these guys are very well educated. They

579
00:32:22,680 --> 00:32:25,800
Speaker 1: know the job. They're professionals, being a victim of robbery

580
00:32:25,840 --> 00:32:28,880
Speaker 1: myself on three occasions, and they're actually very very good

581
00:32:28,880 --> 00:32:29,640
Speaker 1: at what they do.

582
00:32:33,760 --> 00:32:37,800
Speaker 3: The Panthers focus on these enormously expensive items like diamond

583
00:32:37,840 --> 00:32:41,200
Speaker 3: t rs and million dollar watches. Makes up these sense

584
00:32:41,400 --> 00:32:45,360
Speaker 3: for a thief. They're targets graph and other elite brands.

585
00:32:45,840 --> 00:32:49,800
Speaker 3: Makes sense too, since these are places best stocked with

586
00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:53,920
Speaker 3: what they're after. But for this gang of Serbian criminals,

587
00:32:54,200 --> 00:32:57,600
Speaker 3: the choices they've made about what to steal and who

588
00:32:57,640 --> 00:33:01,560
Speaker 3: to steal from might be coming from a more personal place.

589
00:33:05,760 --> 00:33:10,479
Speaker 3: Coming up next on Infamous International, the Pink Panther's story.

590
00:33:10,960 --> 00:33:15,400
Speaker 13: The previous secutive sanctions imposts on Serbia totally criminalizes the

591
00:33:15,440 --> 00:33:19,680
Speaker 13: economy smuggling becomes a huge part of the economy. And

592
00:33:19,800 --> 00:33:23,960
Speaker 13: that's really starts in the nineties and has never changed.

593
00:33:24,120 --> 00:33:28,320
Speaker 3: In Serbia, a decade of sanctions in civil war leaves

594
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:29,800
Speaker 3: the country in shambles.

595
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:33,360
Speaker 13: There was a resentment built to the West with its

596
00:33:33,480 --> 00:33:37,120
Speaker 13: riches and wealth and fleshy lifestyle.

597
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:40,680
Speaker 3: And a generation who see crime as the best career.

598
00:33:41,160 --> 00:33:45,560
Speaker 13: As soon as he turned eighteen, he started doing little

599
00:33:45,720 --> 00:33:49,400
Speaker 13: robberies and when a manager of that job, when he

600
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,800
Speaker 13: saw a group of Serbian students coming in, he calls

601
00:33:52,840 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 13: security immediately because they knew about Milan Yepoya.

602
00:33:57,640 --> 00:34:03,520
Speaker 3: That's next time on Infamous International, The Pink Panthers Story.

603
00:34:14,160 --> 00:34:18,480
Speaker 3: Infamous International The Pink Panthers Story was produced by Best

604
00:34:18,520 --> 00:34:22,799
Speaker 3: Case Studios in association with Koda's Story, hosted by me

605
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:27,799
Speaker 3: Natalia ant Lava and written by Katrina Wolfe, Adam Pinkis,

606
00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:32,880
Speaker 3: Suzanne Myers, and David Markowitz, with help from Brent Katz

607
00:34:33,160 --> 00:34:39,080
Speaker 3: and Matt Levin. For Best Case Studios, Executive producer Adam Pinkis,

608
00:34:39,520 --> 00:34:46,040
Speaker 3: Senior producer David Markowitz, producer Katrina Wolfe, Associate producer Hannah

609
00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:51,360
Speaker 3: Libovitz Lockhart, and consulting producers Julie Goldstein and Louis Spiegeler

610
00:34:51,800 --> 00:34:56,040
Speaker 3: for Koda. Story reporting by Lane Greenberg with associate producer

611
00:34:56,239 --> 00:35:00,840
Speaker 3: Rebecca Robinson. Edited and sound designed by Gail Mullens and

612
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:06,879
Speaker 3: Max Michael Miller. Music by Dave Harrington. Archival producers Marc

613
00:35:06,920 --> 00:35:11,760
Speaker 3: Degora and Paul Dallas. This has been an exactly right production.

614
00:35:12,360 --> 00:35:18,160
Speaker 3: Executive producers Karen Kilgarriff, Georgia hart Stark, and Daniel Kramer,

615
00:35:18,520 --> 00:35:20,960
Speaker 3: with consulting producer Kyle Ryan