'Pink Panther' suspect nabbed near casino - Agence France-Presse - 20th June 2009

Monaco police have arrested at least one suspected member of the "Pink Panther" gang international jewel thieves.

Two other men arrested with him could also be members of the gang.

The three, whose nationality has not been revealed, were picked up on Thursday as they were parking in Monte Carlo's Place du Casino, where several jewellery shops are located.

Interpol has been coordinating the work of several police forces to track down the gang, thought to number around 60 members.

About half of them are Montenegrins, and from the former Yugoslavia.

The group is suspected of having carried out raids in the Mediterranean millionaires' playground of Monte Carlo, the French Channel resort of Le Touquet, as well as in Germany and the Swiss cities of Lausanne and Geneva.

It has also been linked to robberies as far afield as the United States, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, where the Panthers carried out a spectacular heist.

In October 2008, Monaco police arrested two suspected members of the "Pink Panther" in the same square.

Two Montenegrins, suspected members of the "Pink Panther" of jewellery shop raiders, were jailed by a French court earlier this month on charges relating to forged papers.

And on Sunday, Montenegrin police, acting on an Interpol warrant, arrested Vladimir Lekic, another suspected member of the gang, at his home in the central town of Cetinje.

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