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Speaker 1: Meloney pois Exploits is a pink panther landed him in

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Speaker 1: jail more than once, but they also made him famous.

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Speaker 1: He even had the unique pleasure of seeing himself portrayed

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Speaker 1: by an actor on a TV show.

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Speaker 2: I'm not a tieve, really.

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Speaker 3: That your finger can say that you are.

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Speaker 2: There were others with you in that jewelry store in Liechtenstein.

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Speaker 4: Are you know?

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Speaker 2: It could be easy if you cooperate. Who is there

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Speaker 2: with you?

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Speaker 4: Who is your crew? Detective?

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Speaker 5: There is Serbian proverb the foolish fox is caught by

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Speaker 5: one leg, but the.

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Speaker 4: Wise one is caught with all for us.

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Speaker 3: I know it well.

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Speaker 4: Which one are you for? Little wise ones?

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Speaker 1: We'll have to find out. That's a clip from the

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Speaker 1: Fox TV series Americus Most Wanted. It's a dramatic reenactment

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Speaker 1: of Milan's first encounter with Detective Young glass Sea in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and six. The way the show plays that scene,

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Speaker 1: the two men have a kind of grudging respect. Detective

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Speaker 1: glass Sea would in fact be the one to later

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Speaker 1: capture Milan and put him in jail once again. It

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Speaker 1: was a coup for Glassy because Milan Leipoie was a

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Speaker 1: wise fox to use the Serbian proverb. But eventually, no

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Speaker 1: matter how clever you are, the tramps become harder to escape.

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Speaker 1: I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a journalist based in Eastern Europe,

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Speaker 1: and I'm going to take you into the world of

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Speaker 1: Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves.

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Speaker 3: The most daring and successful diamond thieves in the world.

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Speaker 1: Thirty to forty seconds.

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Speaker 4: Out, they've stolen half a billion dollars worth of valuable.

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Speaker 1: Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store

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Speaker 1: in London and walked out with sixty six million dollars

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Speaker 1: in joys. They called the Peak Panthers, their loosely connected

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Speaker 1: crew of over educated, underemployed ambitious young people who rose

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Speaker 1: from the ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the nineteen

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Speaker 1: nineties to commit elaborate smash and grab heists all across

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Speaker 1: the globe, often in broad daylight. This is infamous international

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Speaker 1: The Pink Panthers story Episode eight, Milan le Poya. Last

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Speaker 1: time we heard how the hard driving, ill fated police

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Speaker 1: chief of Monaco, Andre Malberge, had helped create an international

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Speaker 1: task force to confront this embarrassing problem, called the Pink panthers,

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Speaker 1: and he'd convinced the International Crime Fighting Organization an INTERPOL

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Speaker 1: to get involved. It was through INTERPOL that DNA evidence

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Speaker 1: from the highest that the Waffe mall in Dubai was

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Speaker 1: linked to several other heists around the world, including one

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Speaker 1: at the Uber watch and jewelry store in Liechtenstein in

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Speaker 1: two thousand and six. DNA of two men, in particular,

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Speaker 1: Dushko Poznan, a sleepy eye, darkly handsome thirty year old

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Speaker 1: from Bosnia, and Milan Nipoia. After he's arrest by young Glassie,

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Speaker 1: Milan is thrown into a French jail. He is wanted

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Speaker 1: for the Liechtenstein job, but Milan actually has a much

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Speaker 1: bigger problem on his hands. He's also wanted them to

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Speaker 1: buy It will be up to the French courts to

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Speaker 1: decide where he'll be sent to stand trial. Milan knows

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Speaker 1: he's going to need some Helpelo snegois hello.

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Speaker 4: My name is Sandrin Pego. I am a criminal lawyer.

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Speaker 1: Sandri Pagan is a native French speaker, so the voice

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Speaker 1: you're hearing is a translator.

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Speaker 4: So he was defended at that time by an assigned

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Speaker 4: council a lawyer who is appointed by the court by

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Speaker 4: the state.

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Speaker 1: But this court appointed lawyer does little to deflect the

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Speaker 1: charges leveled against Milan.

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Speaker 4: And this attorney council lost the case and so France

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Speaker 4: gave its authorization for him to be extradited to be

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Speaker 4: judged in Dubai.

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Speaker 1: Being judged in Dubai is the last thing Milan wants

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Speaker 1: and he has just one last chance to change his faith.

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Speaker 4: And so he had the possibility within a very short

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Speaker 4: window of time five days starting from the moment the

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Speaker 4: decision was made by the Court of Appeal of Leo,

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Speaker 4: he had five days to appeal to the Court of Cassation.

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Speaker 1: The Court of Cassation or the CC for short, is

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Speaker 1: France's supreme court of appeal in serious criminal cases.

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Speaker 4: It's my branch. This is the one I worked with

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Speaker 4: every day. I practice criminal law every day. So robberies, rapes, murders,

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Speaker 4: all that is something that I know well. And so

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Speaker 4: he had five days after that to appeal to the

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Speaker 4: court and try to change that decision for him not

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Speaker 4: to be sent to Dubai.

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Speaker 1: Of all the lawyers he might have met, Sandrin Pegan

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Speaker 1: is an exceptionally good fit.

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Speaker 4: In fact, I have a law of firm in Serbia,

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Speaker 4: so I have organic ties to the country. So because

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Speaker 4: I have a practice in Serbia, there are often Serbs

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Speaker 4: who solicit my services, and I am immediately won over

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Speaker 4: because it's really a community of people for whom I

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Speaker 4: have particular affections. And because he was in the specific

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Speaker 4: prison where there were other inmates that had been represented

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Speaker 4: by me, he learned about my services there and he

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Speaker 4: asked to meet me.

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Speaker 1: It's more than just a general affection for the Serbian

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Speaker 1: people that makes Sandrin Pagan ideal for Milan's defense. She

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Speaker 1: also knows all about the Pink Panthers, and she's oppressed

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Speaker 1: by the fact that Milan is one of them.

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Speaker 4: I already knew of the existence of the Pink Panthers.

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Speaker 4: I was proud when an alleged member of the gang

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Speaker 4: sought me out for his defense. I stayed with him

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Speaker 4: for about an hour at the prison.

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Speaker 1: We asked Sandrin Pagan if that first meeting made an

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Speaker 1: impression on her, even now within ten years later, you

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Speaker 1: can see in her reaction that it did.

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Speaker 3: Yes.

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Speaker 4: So I remember very well that the first time when

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Speaker 4: I went to meet him at the Sante prison, he

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Speaker 4: was a tall young man, and so just by his posture,

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Speaker 4: by his height, he was already quite in He was

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Speaker 4: a young man who was very handsome, but above all intelligent.

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Speaker 4: He spoke seven languages at his age. I thought that

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Speaker 4: was incredible. Clients usually they are very fine people, but

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Speaker 4: they are not on the same kind of caliber. And

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Speaker 4: he was just extremely smart.

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Speaker 1: And she could feel something else in that first conversation

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Speaker 1: that Milan was surprisingly self aware.

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Speaker 4: Compared to other clients in which I can usually sense

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Speaker 4: that there is some sort of scar or some sort

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Speaker 4: of luck that comes from childhood, Milan was very different.

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Speaker 4: He was someone who knew what he was doing, who

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Speaker 4: trusted in what he was doing, who was not trying

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Speaker 4: to justify his actions in any way by a traumatic

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Speaker 4: said childhood or an absent father. There was none of that.

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Speaker 4: He was compared clearly unapologetic about his way of life,

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Speaker 4: and he already had a pretty impressive journey in a

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Speaker 4: certain sense because of all the different time he had

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Speaker 4: spent in different prisons across the world, and he loved

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Speaker 4: this kind of life. I will always remember that he

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Speaker 4: told me, maybe I spent so much less time outside

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Speaker 4: than most people, that I lived a much better life,

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Speaker 4: and I just realized as soon as we had this

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Speaker 4: conversation that I was entering some sort of extraordinary case.

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Speaker 4: And so during that hour we talked about the whole case,

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Speaker 4: the whole procedure, and especially the stakes.

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Speaker 1: And the stakes for Milan if he cannot avoid being

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Speaker 1: extradited at a Dubai are nothing less than life and death.

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Speaker 1: Consider the fate of his friend and business associate, Borko Ilynchic.

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Speaker 1: Elynchic had also been part of the Dubai heist. He

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Speaker 1: was arrested in Monaco in two thousand and eight along

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Speaker 1: with another member of the team, dush kopos Nan Due

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Speaker 1: tried to get Monaco to extradite the thieves, but Monaco refused.

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Speaker 1: Instead porcot Ilyinchic was deported back to Serbia, where he

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Speaker 1: lived as a freeman, but in twenty fourteen he was

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Speaker 1: arrested again, this time in Spain, and Spanish officials did

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Speaker 1: agree to extradite him to Dubai, where he was locked

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Speaker 1: up in a maximum security prison.

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Speaker 2: They delivered him to Dubai, where he was the first

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Speaker 2: sentenced to seven years.

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Speaker 1: Serbian investigative journalist Yleno Zorich were hearing her through a translator.

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Speaker 2: But in two thousand and seventeen they found him dead.

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Speaker 2: It was under suspicious circumstances that they said that he

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Speaker 2: hang himself in prison in Dubai. But maybe that's not

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Speaker 2: the true version of the story. That's the version that

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Speaker 2: we know. It's not clear how he died.

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Speaker 1: The press coverage of borkoy Linchurch's death in Dubai is

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Speaker 1: full of contradictions. Some reports claim that he died of

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Speaker 1: a heart attack he was thirty six years old. Others

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Speaker 1: stuck to the official story that he'd hanged himself. Borka's

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Speaker 1: friends and family believed to this day that he was murdered.

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Speaker 1: By the time Sandra and Pagan has finished her one

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Speaker 1: hour interview with Milan Lea Poie, her mind is made up.

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Speaker 4: So for Simon, when he asked me to take care

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Speaker 4: of him, to ensure his difference, quite naturally, I accepted.

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Speaker 4: So I had to say yes as soon as possible,

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Speaker 4: very quickly, before I changed my mind, Especially since we

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Speaker 4: were not talking about a murder, we're talking about a robbery.

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Speaker 4: We're talking about a jewelry store where not a single

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Speaker 4: drop of blood was built. I immediately understood that the

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Speaker 4: stakes were high. I remind you that the court of

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Speaker 4: a Pill of Lyons had already ordered his return to Dubai,

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Speaker 4: so if that decision was confirmed, it would have been catastrophic.

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Speaker 4: If I didn't manage to get him out of this situation,

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Speaker 4: he would automatically be sent back to Dubai to be

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Speaker 4: judged and certainly executed there.

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Speaker 1: Despite the fate that awaits him if his new lawyer fails,

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Speaker 1: Milan has a remarkably positive attitude, even though he.

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Speaker 4: Could appear to be quite a fatalistic person. He trusted

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Speaker 4: me completely with his life in that moment, and he

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Speaker 4: was never thinking about the after, but always about the.

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Speaker 1: Now, the present. But Milan also approaches his legal case

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Speaker 1: just like one of his elaborate heists, meticulously, with attention

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Speaker 1: to every tiny detail.

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Speaker 4: He also knew the law very well, so he had

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Speaker 4: a very good sense of what all the different ways

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Speaker 4: he could get out of there, all the different ways

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Speaker 4: in which he could appeal, and he also knew all

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Speaker 4: the non legal ways he could get out of this

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Speaker 4: situation because he had a track record of having escaped prison.

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Speaker 4: So he was not terrified at all because he had

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Speaker 4: a sense of all the options that were there for him.

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Speaker 1: In the lead up to his appeal, Milana is like

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Speaker 1: always focused on the story and the way it plays

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Speaker 1: out in the media.

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Speaker 4: He would also ask me for all the press coverage

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Speaker 4: and I would send him all these articles that I

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Speaker 4: had cut out from all the newspapers. And in a

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Speaker 4: lot of those articles that I had sent him, he

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Speaker 4: was represented as the lead leader of the gang, as

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Speaker 4: the leader of the Pink Panthers, and he really liked

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Speaker 4: and enjoyed that status.

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Speaker 1: And it's not just about him. There's the overall Pink

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Speaker 1: Panther brand to consider, but he.

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Speaker 4: Was also really proud of the way that the gang

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Speaker 4: had been represented. He didn't want the reputation of the

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Speaker 4: gang to be tainted, and he wanted that reputation to

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Speaker 4: be respected, and so the fact that no one had

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Speaker 4: ever died or been killed in one of these hold

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Speaker 4: ups was really important for him.

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Speaker 1: Sandrin Pagan presents a passionate, deeply researched plea to keep

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Speaker 1: Milan le Poya out of the hands of the UAE.

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Speaker 4: And so I put together some thirty pages of documents.

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Speaker 4: I found videos of interviews with people who had been

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Speaker 4: tried in Dubai or people who were criticizing the criminal

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Speaker 4: law in Dubai. Milan was present at the earring, and

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Speaker 4: so he heard me plead and he heard the argument

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Speaker 4: I made for him. But obviously then we didn't know

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Speaker 4: what the decision would be, and so I got first

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Speaker 4: a phone call and then a written notice of the

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Speaker 4: decision that we had won the case, and I went

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Speaker 4: to see him in prison. But for him it was

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Speaker 4: a completely normal conclusion to this process, because he was

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Speaker 4: so confident in my pleading and in the argument I

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Speaker 4: had made, So he was not surprised.

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Speaker 1: Maybe he wasn't surprised, but he must have been grateful.

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Speaker 1: After all, Sandrin Pegan had just saved his life. Of course,

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Speaker 1: it's not as though this verdict makes Milan e free man.

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Speaker 4: Milon Lepoya agreed to be handed over to the Liechtenstein

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Speaker 4: authorities since there was also an international arrest warm Bear.

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Speaker 4: He was not worried, especially because he knew that he

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Speaker 4: was going to go back to Liechtenstein where he had

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Speaker 4: already been in prison, and I was pretty sure that

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Speaker 4: he was probably already thinking ahead of how he would

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Speaker 4: potentially escape again. He was always kind of thinking ahead,

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Speaker 4: always one step ahead in his thinking.

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Speaker 1: For Sandrin Pegung, her time with this charismatic young panther

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Speaker 1: was over. So did they stay in touch?

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Speaker 4: No, we didn't stay in touch. I mean what would

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Speaker 4: we have done. I would have called him and been like,

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Speaker 4: how are you doing? And you would have been in

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Speaker 4: prison in this country. I'm in prison in this other country.

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Speaker 4: So that wasn't really what happened. As a lawyer, this

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Speaker 4: is what happens quite regularly with clients. We share this

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Speaker 4: case together and then once the case is closed, we

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Speaker 4: go and live our lives separately.

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Speaker 1: Maybe so, but she has also never forgotten Milan.

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Speaker 4: It is one of the cases that I remember most

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Speaker 4: in that he's someone who really leaves an impression on you.

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Speaker 4: It is one of the most remarkable cases I've taken on.

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Speaker 1: In March of twenty ten, Milan Lepoier is transferred from

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Speaker 1: France to Liechtenstein to stand trial for police there. That

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Speaker 1: presents some serious logistical challenges. Police Commissioner Jules Hogg was

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Speaker 1: serving as head of the Criminal Investigation Division.

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Speaker 3: Because he was a pink panther and because he escaped

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Speaker 3: by violence from prison. Actually the normal airlines were not

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Speaker 3: willing actually to transport him from Paris to Liechtenstein. Therefore

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Speaker 3: we had to charter our own plane to get him

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Speaker 3: in Paris. And I just actually was in this delegation.

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Speaker 1: I met him.

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Speaker 3: I sat just next to him in the airplane from

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Speaker 3: Paris to Syric, then by helicopter from Syric to v.

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Speaker 1: DUTs, And just like Sandri and Pegng, Jules Haw is impressed.

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Speaker 3: He seemed to be a very intelligent man. He had

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Speaker 3: spoke several languages. Of course, it was not giving any

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Speaker 3: evidence to the robbery, so he didn't say anything. But

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Speaker 3: he knew exactly what he was doing, and he did

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Speaker 3: it really professionally.

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Speaker 1: But he was still a thief.

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Speaker 3: I think pant O Lepoiet is different from other perpetrators

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Speaker 3: we see in Lichenstein, probably all over the world. But nevertheless,

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Speaker 3: I mean he's still a criminal. I mean he made

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Speaker 3: a choice, and he knew exactly what he was doing,

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Speaker 3: and he knew exactly that this was illegal, and it

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Speaker 3: was a crime. He knew that, and he did it

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Speaker 3: a purpose.

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Speaker 1: The presiding judge agrees.

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Speaker 3: And actually was sentenced and from nine year imprisonment, and

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Speaker 3: because our prison is very small, we send our convicts

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Speaker 3: to Austria. And actually he served there sentence, but after

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Speaker 3: a few years he was then sent to Serbia to

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Speaker 3: finish his sentence there.

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Speaker 1: In a Serbian jail, Milan Napoya serves nine years for

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Speaker 1: his role in the Huber watch and jewelry store robbery

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Speaker 1: in Liechtenstein. There are no dramatic prison breaks this time around.

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Speaker 1: He quietly serves out his sentence, and then in twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 1: at the age of forty, he's a freeman. After almost

286
00:18:40,960 --> 00:18:44,280
Speaker 1: a decade away, Milan returns to the place he'd grown

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Speaker 1: up and found his criminal calling. The city of Niche,

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00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:52,280
Speaker 1: that crossed roads between Eastern Europe and the West. A

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Speaker 1: favorite of smugglers and thieves, he is greeted like a

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Speaker 1: hometown hero. Serbian investigation reporter he led au Zorich again.

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Speaker 2: While he was in jail. The people in Niche, they

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Speaker 2: were missing him. He helped a lot of people find

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Speaker 2: unemployment because it was enough for him just to make

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Speaker 2: one phone call to find a job for a friend

295
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Speaker 2: of someone he knew.

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Speaker 1: She says that once he's out of prison, Milan is

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Speaker 1: determined to go straight for real.

298
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Speaker 2: This time, Leepoya also tried to live a quiet life.

299
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Speaker 2: He got married, he got a dog. He got another

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Speaker 2: dog for his mom and sister.

301
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Speaker 1: Serbian journalist Kordana Biletich remember seeing Milan around Niche during

302
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Speaker 1: this time.

303
00:19:41,800 --> 00:19:45,040
Speaker 6: When you see him, you see a family man like

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Speaker 6: any other family man in Niche. He wasn't acting like

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Speaker 6: he's a big shot or something. He was just the

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Speaker 6: usual kind of person of.

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Speaker 7: His age living here in Niche.

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Speaker 6: He was a father, taking his children to some usual

309
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:04,280
Speaker 6: activisties and things like that.

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Speaker 7: He wasn't someone that you could see in the street

311
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Speaker 7: and say.

312
00:20:08,560 --> 00:20:13,000
Speaker 6: Is like a pink planter, or he's a criminal or whatever.

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Speaker 1: Gordana admits this description may seem surprising.

314
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Speaker 6: I mentioned how people coming from outside Serbia see that

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Speaker 6: there's a romantic story, some Hollywood story about the smart

316
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Speaker 6: chief who ran away with the millions and lived happily

317
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Speaker 6: ever after. That's fun story from outside. From inside, from

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00:20:34,240 --> 00:20:38,919
Speaker 6: his mates from his childhood, you can hear another story

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Speaker 6: about the nice guy and a good friend they always liked.

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Speaker 1: But as normal life settles over Milan Pressure's mouth, it's

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Speaker 1: typical troubles. At least at first.

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Speaker 2: His wife didn't get along with his mother and sister,

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Speaker 2: which is something that happens very often when families lived

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Speaker 2: together in Serbia.

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Speaker 1: But also Milan is restless.

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Speaker 2: But obviously he was now too bored with this new lifestyle,

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Speaker 2: and maybe that's something that made him start doing drugs,

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Speaker 2: which he didn't do before that.

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Speaker 1: When Milan Lapoy and his friends had come of age

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Speaker 1: and entered the life of crime in the nineteen nineties,

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Speaker 1: there was a clear two tier criminal hierarchy in Niche.

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Speaker 1: At the top were the cigarette smugglers, with their tattoos

333
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Speaker 1: and their violence, their connections to other criminal organizations outside

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Speaker 1: of Serbia. Below them were criminals like the Pink Panthers,

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Speaker 1: more glamorous, less violent. But in the years that Milan

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00:21:48,920 --> 00:21:54,040
Speaker 1: had been away, things had changed. I spoke to my colleague,

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Speaker 1: reporter Elan Greenberg about this evolution of criminal enterprise in

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Speaker 1: Milan's hometown. Allan, so, what would you say was different

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Speaker 1: about Niche when the land finally got back from prison.

340
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Speaker 8: Well, it's gotten more consolidated. There are these two dominant gangs,

341
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Speaker 8: the Kavak and Dishcalieri. They're pretty ruthless people. These are

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00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:16,280
Speaker 8: two crime families and they now run most of the

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Speaker 8: major smuggling operations. So these two gangs are coordinating with

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Speaker 8: their business partners outside of Serbia. And even though these

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00:22:22,760 --> 00:22:25,479
Speaker 8: are criminals and probably not people you'd be inclined to trust,

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Speaker 8: they do manage to find a way to work together

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Speaker 8: because they've seen that things are changing and their old

348
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:33,680
Speaker 8: business is kind of drying up, so they know they

349
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Speaker 8: have to do something, and it just makes sense to cooperate,

350
00:22:36,600 --> 00:22:38,640
Speaker 8: you know, at least for some period of time. I mean,

351
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Speaker 8: they're business people and they're dealing with a market, so

352
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Speaker 8: they figure they.

353
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Speaker 1: Need to adapt adopt.

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Speaker 8: How So, the government in Serbia's finally managed to take

355
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Speaker 8: over the cigarette business because it's it's lucrative and it's legienimate.

356
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Speaker 8: It's just too valuable to let the criminal class reap

357
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Speaker 8: all the profits if they can help it, so that

358
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Speaker 8: top tier niche find another products they can dominate. And

359
00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:05,760
Speaker 8: it's actually it's more lucrative than cigarettes, but it's more

360
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Speaker 8: dangerous too.

361
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Speaker 1: And what's that, well, cocaine. A shift from cigarettes to

362
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Speaker 1: cocaine sounds like a big move, but from a logistics standpoint,

363
00:23:18,680 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 1: it was more or less the same. Here's an investigative reporter,

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Speaker 1: Stepan Dojinovich.

365
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Speaker 5: For criminal groups in terms of smuggling, was not big

366
00:23:28,320 --> 00:23:31,800
Speaker 5: difference because they used the same people, and they used

367
00:23:31,800 --> 00:23:35,159
Speaker 5: the same roots, which means the same board crossing. Everything

368
00:23:35,400 --> 00:23:40,600
Speaker 5: was basically going to the hands of the same custom officers.

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Speaker 1: And for a time things were remarkably stable.

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Speaker 5: Cocaine smuggling, it's also the field where a lot of

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00:23:46,400 --> 00:23:49,800
Speaker 5: the ballhand gangs basically corporate. It is more and more

372
00:23:50,160 --> 00:23:52,399
Speaker 5: like if you see these big shipments of cocaine from

373
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Speaker 5: South America, will be basically not the cocaine on by

374
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Speaker 5: one gang, but most likely a couple of gangs basically

375
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Speaker 5: team up to arrange the same ship into the drugs.

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Speaker 1: But in twenty fifteen, a large shipment of cocaine went

377
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Speaker 1: missing in Spain. Each side suspected the other.

378
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Speaker 5: They got involved in this open war that splitted the

379
00:24:12,119 --> 00:24:14,000
Speaker 5: whole Balkan underworld.

380
00:24:15,600 --> 00:24:19,680
Speaker 1: This open war in the criminal underworld wreaked havoc across

381
00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:24,400
Speaker 1: the balcons. Gang members were gonne down in public, dozens

382
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:28,960
Speaker 1: were murdered, and the two tiered criminal hierarchy that had

383
00:24:28,960 --> 00:24:32,359
Speaker 1: been in place for so long it started to become

384
00:24:32,560 --> 00:24:36,919
Speaker 1: less stable, less distinct. Because when there is a turf

385
00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:39,880
Speaker 1: war going on, everyone has to take sides.

386
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Speaker 5: Most of the gangs that are active team up one

387
00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:48,760
Speaker 5: side or another and pig punters and their groups team

388
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Speaker 5: up with one side, like literally every gang was needed

389
00:24:51,800 --> 00:24:54,200
Speaker 5: in a way to choose some side because things become

390
00:24:54,440 --> 00:24:57,960
Speaker 5: very heated. It was the war. A lot of people died.

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Speaker 1: The panthers may have been inclined to stick to diamonds

392
00:25:02,520 --> 00:25:05,960
Speaker 1: and watches and well planned heists where no one gets hurt,

393
00:25:06,600 --> 00:25:10,119
Speaker 1: but they end up without a choice. This is the

394
00:25:10,160 --> 00:25:13,199
Speaker 1: world Milan Lepoyer returns to when he is released from prison,

395
00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:16,200
Speaker 1: and even though he'd been away for nine years, he's

396
00:25:16,240 --> 00:25:20,520
Speaker 1: still well connected, he's well liked, and so while he

397
00:25:20,560 --> 00:25:23,960
Speaker 1: may have had every intention of going straight, it wasn't

398
00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:27,280
Speaker 1: going to be easy. Here's gordanam Jelatic again.

399
00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:31,560
Speaker 6: He came back to Niche and he was recognized as

400
00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,840
Speaker 6: one of the leaders of that big punter group. You

401
00:25:34,960 --> 00:25:39,520
Speaker 6: can not live in this area surrounded by so many

402
00:25:39,560 --> 00:25:41,280
Speaker 6: other criminal groups.

403
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:43,640
Speaker 7: They will just not let you alone.

404
00:25:44,520 --> 00:25:48,480
Speaker 1: At family stress and possibly a bit of a drug problem,

405
00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,400
Speaker 1: and you can see how Milan might be drawn back.

406
00:25:51,400 --> 00:26:01,840
Speaker 1: In One day in December of twenty twenty one, Milan

407
00:26:01,920 --> 00:26:05,280
Speaker 1: tells his wife and his mother that he's going out.

408
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,280
Speaker 1: He'd been in the market for a new car and

409
00:26:08,320 --> 00:26:12,760
Speaker 1: he was in touch with someone in Belgrade. They never

410
00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:14,159
Speaker 1: heard from him again.

411
00:26:18,320 --> 00:26:21,840
Speaker 2: So the relationships in his family they were not really

412
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:25,480
Speaker 2: good at the time when he disappeared, So it took

413
00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,600
Speaker 2: the family a couple of days to report his missing

414
00:26:28,760 --> 00:26:31,480
Speaker 2: because they were fighting between each other, so no one

415
00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:34,520
Speaker 2: actually reported that he was missing.

416
00:26:35,320 --> 00:26:38,080
Speaker 1: And even if they had reported it, all his family

417
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:40,600
Speaker 1: knew was that he was meeting someone who had the

418
00:26:40,680 --> 00:26:44,560
Speaker 1: exact kind of car Milan was looking to buy. And

419
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:46,679
Speaker 1: what kind of car are we talking about?

420
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:51,520
Speaker 7: Actually he went to buy an armored car, not.

421
00:26:51,600 --> 00:26:54,800
Speaker 1: The car of a typical family man, not a minivan.

422
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:57,760
Speaker 1: Were the kind of thing you might need. If he'd

423
00:26:57,760 --> 00:27:03,160
Speaker 1: become newly entangled in the blood between two warring cartels,

424
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:06,320
Speaker 1: Milan had chosen a side.

425
00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:10,120
Speaker 2: He had connections with the one. Kurtel and other members

426
00:27:10,160 --> 00:27:12,359
Speaker 2: of the Pink Panthers group they had connections with a

427
00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:15,320
Speaker 2: different one. So practically those guys who were members of

428
00:27:15,400 --> 00:27:21,240
Speaker 2: Pink Panthers they were somehow related, somehow connected to two

429
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:23,399
Speaker 2: different drug cartels.

430
00:27:24,119 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 1: Milan had chosen the Scalieri clan over the opposing clan

431
00:27:27,920 --> 00:27:32,159
Speaker 1: called the Kavak. The Scalieri was planning to assassinate the

432
00:27:32,280 --> 00:27:37,359
Speaker 1: Kavak boss. Given his skills and illustrious track record, Milan

433
00:27:37,440 --> 00:27:41,120
Speaker 1: had been nominated to lead the team organizing the head.

434
00:27:42,480 --> 00:27:46,600
Speaker 2: With his knowledge of organization. That's what I mentioned earlier

435
00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:50,840
Speaker 2: that organizing heights is very similar to organizing a murder

436
00:27:50,880 --> 00:27:54,280
Speaker 2: as well, so with what he did previously, he already

437
00:27:54,320 --> 00:27:58,359
Speaker 2: had enough experience to start moving toward an organization of

438
00:27:58,480 --> 00:27:59,040
Speaker 2: a murder.

439
00:27:59,280 --> 00:28:02,080
Speaker 7: He also had very good connections in Ukraine.

440
00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:06,879
Speaker 1: The Kavak boss is living in nearby Ukraine.

441
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,560
Speaker 5: So they decided to send the killers to get him there.

442
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:12,359
Speaker 1: Journalists Stevanda Djinovich again.

443
00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:15,280
Speaker 5: And some of them were recruited from town Nish and

444
00:28:15,400 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 5: Yapoya was the gangster who was originally from nish So

445
00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:21,719
Speaker 5: Yapa was in charge to recruit some of these killers.

446
00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:25,000
Speaker 1: The plan was for the five man team to travel

447
00:28:25,040 --> 00:28:28,640
Speaker 1: from Niche to Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. They would

448
00:28:28,680 --> 00:28:31,800
Speaker 1: go to the house of the Kawak boss and shoot him.

449
00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:36,840
Speaker 1: Milanepuya would be back home in Serbia awaiting confirmation that

450
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:41,080
Speaker 1: the job was done. But things didn't go as planned.

451
00:28:43,040 --> 00:28:45,640
Speaker 5: These killers didn't succeed, so they managed to shoot but

452
00:28:45,760 --> 00:28:48,760
Speaker 5: the leader of opposite gang basically survived.

453
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,920
Speaker 1: According to Yelenazorage, this was the result of some bad luck.

454
00:28:53,480 --> 00:28:55,760
Speaker 7: It was really a miracle the way that he survived

455
00:28:55,960 --> 00:28:57,040
Speaker 7: this attempted murderer.

456
00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:00,760
Speaker 1: In Ukraine, the wife of the Kavak boss managed to

457
00:29:00,880 --> 00:29:03,480
Speaker 1: hide from the hitman. She got hold of a gun

458
00:29:03,920 --> 00:29:06,840
Speaker 1: and fired at them as they ran to their getaway car.

459
00:29:07,720 --> 00:29:11,640
Speaker 1: Her husband had been shot five times, but he survived.

460
00:29:15,280 --> 00:29:18,240
Speaker 1: The failed hit left Milan le Poya a nervous wreck.

461
00:29:19,160 --> 00:29:22,320
Speaker 1: He's terrified of revenge and he doesn't hide it very well,

462
00:29:22,960 --> 00:29:24,640
Speaker 1: and this gets back to the coback.

463
00:29:24,960 --> 00:29:28,400
Speaker 5: So basically they learned that he felt unsafe and he

464
00:29:28,560 --> 00:29:31,120
Speaker 5: was looking to buy some better car with better protection,

465
00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,440
Speaker 5: so he went to buy a car which would be bulletproof.

466
00:29:35,600 --> 00:29:39,280
Speaker 1: A plan was hatched. A so called friend would lure

467
00:29:39,320 --> 00:29:42,240
Speaker 1: Milana away from home, so they set up.

468
00:29:42,360 --> 00:29:45,320
Speaker 5: A fake offer, offering him that he can buy some

469
00:29:45,480 --> 00:29:48,440
Speaker 5: really cool car from the guy who was posing as

470
00:29:48,480 --> 00:29:49,880
Speaker 5: a distributor of the cars.

471
00:29:50,320 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 2: They were pretending they were selling this armored car to him,

472
00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:55,360
Speaker 2: but actually they just wanted to kidnap him.

473
00:29:56,520 --> 00:29:59,280
Speaker 1: Milan arrives at the house in the suburbs of Belgrade,

474
00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,800
Speaker 1: assuming he's about to me the cellar of his armored car.

475
00:30:03,960 --> 00:30:06,760
Speaker 5: So he went into Belgrade into the house and this

476
00:30:06,920 --> 00:30:11,040
Speaker 5: mafia group was calling it slaughterhouse, and so he went

477
00:30:11,120 --> 00:30:13,360
Speaker 5: to this house to check car, but actually remembers actually

478
00:30:13,440 --> 00:30:17,000
Speaker 5: capture him and he was sent to this special hidden

479
00:30:17,080 --> 00:30:19,280
Speaker 5: room in this house and they'll torture him in order

480
00:30:19,360 --> 00:30:23,040
Speaker 5: to get passwords from his phone. And then when they

481
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:25,720
Speaker 5: got everything they need from his phone, he was basically

482
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:27,040
Speaker 5: killed there.

483
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:31,680
Speaker 1: And the killers document every step of the process, which

484
00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:36,440
Speaker 1: is how we know exactly what happened. A quick warning

485
00:30:36,720 --> 00:30:37,760
Speaker 1: that this gets graphic.

486
00:30:39,040 --> 00:30:40,760
Speaker 5: The thing is that this gang, when they were like

487
00:30:41,040 --> 00:30:43,800
Speaker 5: torturing and killing people, they were like capturing and seeing

488
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:47,200
Speaker 5: the photos. And these photos are now most important actually evidence,

489
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:50,040
Speaker 5: because they really were taking photos of every step that

490
00:30:50,160 --> 00:30:54,000
Speaker 5: they did. And then the leader of this gang came

491
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:57,240
Speaker 5: with the X to drop his head. And what was

492
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,560
Speaker 5: interesting you can see that he was really old fashioned,

493
00:31:00,120 --> 00:31:03,160
Speaker 5: said this is not my style. I'm more for the

494
00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:04,040
Speaker 5: strip than the gun.

495
00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 1: After debating how to murder their guest, the kidnappers put

496
00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:13,320
Speaker 1: a bag over milanle Boy's head to suffocate him. They're unsuccessful.

497
00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:18,000
Speaker 1: They guarret him with a piano wire, one man pulling

498
00:31:18,080 --> 00:31:21,560
Speaker 1: from each side. They're still not convinced that he's dead,

499
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 1: so they slid his throat and then they chop his

500
00:31:28,680 --> 00:31:29,840
Speaker 1: body into pieces.

501
00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:34,960
Speaker 5: There is also two protected witnesses who were part of

502
00:31:35,200 --> 00:31:37,360
Speaker 5: the team that was dismantling the body, which was a

503
00:31:37,400 --> 00:31:38,120
Speaker 5: long procedure.

504
00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:45,240
Speaker 1: The Kavak sent photos of Milan's dismembered corpse to every

505
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:49,480
Speaker 1: contact in his cell phone before allegedly dumping the remains

506
00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:57,920
Speaker 1: in the Danube River. Milan's wife waits four days before

507
00:31:57,960 --> 00:32:03,120
Speaker 1: alerting anyone to his disappearing. Even then, she simply texts

508
00:32:03,160 --> 00:32:08,440
Speaker 1: Milan's sister saying, your brother is missing. According to Yelena Zorich,

509
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:13,320
Speaker 1: local authorities were unable or unwilling to save Milan Lapoya.

510
00:32:14,160 --> 00:32:17,920
Speaker 2: The police was already following this group, so there are

511
00:32:18,080 --> 00:32:22,440
Speaker 2: actually videos. There is a video material showing him going

512
00:32:22,880 --> 00:32:26,520
Speaker 2: into this house and disappearing and never coming back from

513
00:32:26,560 --> 00:32:30,280
Speaker 2: it alive. It was the secret services of the Western

514
00:32:30,360 --> 00:32:33,560
Speaker 2: Europe who were involved in the case. They discovered that

515
00:32:33,800 --> 00:32:38,520
Speaker 2: Yapoya had connections with the Ukrainian police because the Ukrainian

516
00:32:38,560 --> 00:32:41,520
Speaker 2: police was also in touch with him. Their secret services

517
00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:43,880
Speaker 2: were in touch with him when he tried to murder

518
00:32:44,120 --> 00:32:46,360
Speaker 2: the leader of the other gang who survived.

519
00:32:48,240 --> 00:32:50,960
Speaker 1: It's been widely reported that a high level of Ukrainian

520
00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:54,600
Speaker 1: police officer and two of his underlings have been connected

521
00:32:54,680 --> 00:32:58,840
Speaker 1: to the assassination attempt on the Kavak Boss. Could Milan

522
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 1: have been working as an format for the Ukrainian authorities.

523
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:04,920
Speaker 1: We can't know at this point, but one thing is

524
00:33:05,000 --> 00:33:09,280
Speaker 1: for certain. Milan's so called friends had led him to

525
00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:09,880
Speaker 1: his death.

526
00:33:13,560 --> 00:33:16,920
Speaker 2: Even a couple of weeks before he finished his life,

527
00:33:17,280 --> 00:33:20,120
Speaker 2: he didn't look like he had any problems with anybody,

528
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:24,280
Speaker 2: but his friends obviously betrayed him. He didn't get the

529
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,000
Speaker 2: feeling that they were against him at the end. He

530
00:33:27,240 --> 00:33:29,480
Speaker 2: was definitely not expecting that.

531
00:33:31,080 --> 00:33:34,520
Speaker 1: As we recorded this in April of twenty twenty three,

532
00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:39,280
Speaker 1: the trial of Milan Leipoye's killers was still underway in Belgrade.

533
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,440
Speaker 1: Serbian media has dubbed it the trial of the century.

534
00:33:44,240 --> 00:33:47,760
Speaker 1: A large mural of Milan now adorns a residential building

535
00:33:47,840 --> 00:33:54,760
Speaker 1: in his hometown of Niche. For much of his short life,

536
00:33:55,240 --> 00:33:58,480
Speaker 1: Milan Leapoye was well known and well liked in Serbia.

537
00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 1: In death, he's become a legend. Next time on Infamous International,

538
00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,520
Speaker 1: The Story of the Pink Panthers the criminal world in

539
00:34:11,640 --> 00:34:13,200
Speaker 1: the Balkans has changed.

540
00:34:13,840 --> 00:34:17,359
Speaker 2: He did a couple of heights, one of them pretty spectacular,

541
00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,240
Speaker 2: but he didn't have the reason to believe that someone

542
00:34:20,360 --> 00:34:21,759
Speaker 2: would want to kill him.

543
00:34:21,960 --> 00:34:24,400
Speaker 7: In Serbia, no one is safe.

544
00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:26,960
Speaker 2: He was in his car when they started shooting in

545
00:34:27,080 --> 00:34:31,400
Speaker 2: him and there were thirty shots and no one is talking.

546
00:34:32,120 --> 00:34:34,480
Speaker 1: I was not part of the team who did it

547
00:34:34,520 --> 00:34:34,920
Speaker 1: in the Bai.

548
00:34:35,320 --> 00:34:37,279
Speaker 5: A few of them I know in person, but I

549
00:34:37,320 --> 00:34:39,719
Speaker 5: don't want to speak in buch of those things.

550
00:34:40,200 --> 00:34:44,239
Speaker 1: And so a so called trial of the century lays

551
00:34:44,320 --> 00:34:45,120
Speaker 1: it all bare.

552
00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:47,279
Speaker 4: Tabloid media are all over it.

553
00:34:47,960 --> 00:34:51,440
Speaker 5: You have front pages full of you know, these gluesome

554
00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:52,480
Speaker 5: bloody details.

555
00:34:53,120 --> 00:34:57,239
Speaker 1: That's coming up on the finale of Infamous International, The

556
00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:12,000
Speaker 1: Story of the Pink Panthers. Infamous International. The Pink Panthers

557
00:35:12,080 --> 00:35:16,600
Speaker 1: Story was produced by Best Case Studios in association with Koda.

558
00:35:16,719 --> 00:35:21,040
Speaker 1: Story hosted by me Natalia ant Lava and written by

559
00:35:21,280 --> 00:35:26,840
Speaker 1: Katrina Wolfe, Adam Pinkis, Suzanne Myers, and David Markowitz, with

560
00:35:27,040 --> 00:35:31,840
Speaker 1: help from Brent Katz and Matt Levin for Best Case Studios.

561
00:35:32,160 --> 00:35:39,320
Speaker 1: Executive Producer Adam Pinkis, Senior Producer, David Markowitz, Producer Katrina Wolfe,

562
00:35:39,760 --> 00:35:45,719
Speaker 1: associate producer Hannah Libovitz Lockhart, and consulting producers Julie Goldstein

563
00:35:45,880 --> 00:35:49,960
Speaker 1: and Louis Spiegeler for Koda. Story reporting by Lane Greenberg

564
00:35:50,320 --> 00:35:55,120
Speaker 1: with associate producer Rebecca Robinson. Edited and sound designed by

565
00:35:55,239 --> 00:35:59,920
Speaker 1: Gaylan Mullins and Max Michael Miller. Music by Dave Harrington.

566
00:36:00,840 --> 00:36:05,719
Speaker 1: Archival producers Magdagora and Paul Dallas. This has been an

567
00:36:05,800 --> 00:36:12,040
Speaker 1: exactly right production. Executive producers Karen Kilgarreff, Georgia hart Stark,

568
00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:16,440
Speaker 1: and Daniel Kramer, with consulting producer Kyle Ryan