In Italy, a Croat arrested on suspicion of stealing Renoir, in Serbia, jewel thieves arrested in France

The police in northern Italy found two paintings by Rubens and Renoir stolen last year in Monza, and among the suspects is one Croat. The paintings “Holy Family” and “Girls in the Field” were stolen on April 20, 2017, from a gallery owner in Cagliari and Arona.

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Eight people are suspected of participating in the theft, including four Italians and one Croat who were arrested last month. They were assisted by an Austrian driver (30). The paintings were stolen when the thieves, falsely presenting themselves as buyers, contacted art dealers with whom they signed a fake contract and committed to pay 26 million euros.

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They exploited the seller’s negligence, seized the paintings, and fled, investigators say. A special unit of carabinieri discovered the paintings in a warehouse in Turin and presented them to the public at a press conference in Monza.

Four Serbs arrested 15 years after the robbery

Fifteen years after the bold robbery of a French jewelry store, four suspected perpetrators were found in Serbia. The robbery in Belfort had all the characteristics of the Pink Panther operation, the modus operandi of an international network of jewel thieves involving Serbs and Montenegrins responsible for some of the most audacious heists in the last two decades.

It is believed that these criminals committed at least 380 armed robberies between 1999 and 2015, targeting stores of expensive jewelry. The value of the stolen goods is estimated at 334 million euros, according to Interpol. One morning in September 2003, a group of masked men stormed a jewelry store in Belfort, a town in eastern France just 25 kilometers from the Swiss border.

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One pulled out a gun while others smashed glass showcases and took jewelry and watches worth 350,000 euros and fled, all within a minute. The police later managed to arrest their Serbian accomplices, one of whom was wearing a stolen watch on his wrist. But the robbers were never identified.

They were not identified until 2013 when there was a breakthrough in the forensic investigation related to drops of blood on one of the glass showcases, on a cabinet, and on a Cartier box. DNA analysis identified two Serbian nationals who were unknown in France but wanted in Austria. Both are 41 years old and are known by the nicknames “Žica” and “Boka”. By reviewing the records of their phone conversations, two more suspects were revealed for involvement in the robbery: “Saša” (37) and “Luka” (48).

Criminal culture

All four are from Užice, once an advanced industrial city about 150 kilometers southwest of Belgrade. “Most of these criminals come from Niš, Čačak, and Užice,” said prosecutor Ljubiša Dragašević to AFP, adding that many in this western region turn to crime because they “can barely make ends meet.”

However, it is also about a “criminal culture in society, dangerous guys,” he said. “In such circles, these activities abroad are a matter of prestige. They see themselves as protectors of the poor Serbian victims of the West,” said the prosecutor.

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Although identified, these four are beyond the reach of the French judiciary because Serbia does not extradite its citizens. Over the past decade, France and Serbia have established close cooperation in the judiciary following the murder of a French football fan in Belgrade in 2009, so a French judge requested that a Serbian prosecutor interrogate the four.

Bold robberies fund a life of luxury

At the hearing in November, all four denied involvement in the robbery. If they were in Belfort at that time, it was for a “techno evening,” said one of them. Another claimed they were there to “buy used cars.”

Boka had just finished serving time for a fatal traffic accident, while Žica and Saša soon after the November hearing began serving a five-year prison sentence for stealing watches worth nearly 950,000 euros from a jewelry store in Hamburg in 2014. Several of them are also suspected of involvement in robberies in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

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Such bold robberies finance a lavish lifestyle at home, Dragašević said, adding that they quickly spend that money “in bars and restaurants, on cocaine, prostitutes… buying luxury cars and expensive clothes.” “Such a lifestyle requires a lot of money which they quickly spend and then return to crime,” he said.

Statute of limitations threatens the Belfort robbery case

Their activities are not limited to jewelry stores. One Serbian investigator says they are also connected with Albanian gangs in drug trafficking to the West. The money is also used for loan sharking, financing younger criminals, or investing in property, bars, and restaurants, he noted. But they never carry out robberies at home, where they have their “sanctuary.”

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Since Serbia will not extradite them, if France wants the trial to take place in Serbia for Belfort, as it did for the Hamburg robbery, the judicial system will need to transfer that case to Belgrade. This must happen soon as the statute of limitations expires on September 19. “Everything must be done quickly so that they can judge the criminals,” said deputy prosecutor Gordana Janičijević to AFP. If found guilty, the perpetrators could face up to 15 years in prison.

Otherwise, French prosecutors will have to go for a judgment in absentia and issue an international arrest warrant, which would mean that the four thieves can no longer leave Serbia without risking arrest and extradition.