A key member of the Pink Panthers, wanted internationally for his suspected role in a series of high value jewelry robberies around the world, has been arrested by Italian police. This marks the second time in less than a month that a member of the infamous jewelry robbery gang has been arrested.

Thirty-nine-year-old Radovan Jelusic, a Montenegrin national, who is wanted for a range of offences, was identified and arrested by the Squadra Mobile in Rome.

Jelusic, who is suspected of involvement in the 2007 armed robbery of a jewelry store in the Ginza district of Tokyo, was in possession of a forged Croatian passport when located.

“This arrest, which comes less than two weeks after that of another Pink Panthers member in Montenegro, clearly shows the effective work being done by police investigating this gang of armed robbers, and particularly by the police in Montenegro and Italy in this case,” said Jean-Michel Louboutin, Executive Director of Police Services at INTERPOL, which created the Pink Panthers project in 2007 to co-ordinate the worldwide campaign across its 188 member countries against the crime gang which is believed to have carried out armed jewelry robberies around the world worth in excess of EUR 250 million in the last ten years.