The Pink Panther

Cyprus police have in their custody a member of the Pink Panthers, the infamous gang of well-dressed jewel thieves that have been staging spectacular heists for decades around the world.

London Police on Wednesday issued an appeal for help in tracking down a Croat master thief, suspected of having played a key role in an "audacious" jewel theft in the British capital last year.

They named Croat national Vinko Osmakcic, who uses various aliases, as the likely robber of three rings worth some 2 million pounds from an art fair in London's upscale Chelsea district.

The raid on Kim Kardashian’s apartment has all the hallmarks of the Pink Panthers, a gang of super-criminals who have got away with tens of millions of pounds in jewels in high-profile heists since 1984. The gang, whose members mostly hail from Serbia and Montenegro, have stolen more than 280 million pounds.

Senior police investigators from Europe, Japan and the United Arab Emirates gathered in Budva, Montenegro, on Wednesday to share information about ongoing investigations into the so-called "Pink Panther" robberies around the world.

The meeting is part of an Interpol operation against the gang, most of whose members come from the former Yugoslavia.

A fourth member of the so-called Pink Panther gang of international jewel thieves was arrested late on Friday.

Police said that the 26-year-old was arrested in the Athens neighborhood of Kypseli.

Like the other three suspects arrested earlier on Friday, he is also a Serbian national.

Three members of the Serbian Pink Panther gang of jewel thieves who have carried out robberies in Britain, Dubai, Japan and Switzerland have been arrested in Athens, police sources said on Friday.