'Pink Panther' suspect brought to Japan after arrest

The Yomiuri Shimbun

A suspected member of the "Pink Panther" crime ring has been arrested and brought to Japan over a 2007 robbery at a Tokyo jewelry store.

Spanish authorities handed over 42-year-old Rifat Hadziahmetovic, a Montenegrin, to the Metropolitan Police Department in Spain on Friday. Hadziahmetovic was transported to Narita Airport on Saturday afternoon via France's Charles de Gaulle Airport, and sent to the MPD's Tsukiji Police Station in Tokyo.

Taking into account the possibility that members of the Pink Panther group might try to rescue the suspect, the MPD took Hadziahmetovic from Narita to the police station in a bulletproof vehicle escorted by two helicopters.

According to the MPD, Hadziahmetovic and an accomplice stole jewelry worth about 284 million yen, including a diamond tiara valued at 200 million yen, from a shop in Ginza on June 14, 2007. The MPD has arrested Hadziahmetovic on suspicion of robbery and injurious assault.

Hadziahmetovic was first arrested in Cyprus in March 2009 when he tried to leave the country for Lebanon. He was later extradited to Spain over a separate robbery in that country. Spanish authorities handed him over to an MPD officer on board an airplane bound to France, after taking him to the airport from prison.

According to police investigators, the Pink Panther group has freed members from jail on five occasions from 2004 through 2008, including one in France in which a senior member of the group escaped after men believed to be Pink Panther members shot at the jail with machine guns.

The Pink Panther group is an international crime ring that primarily steals diamonds and luxury watches from jewelry stores in Europe and the Middle East.