9: Crime Doesn’t Pay

They were just the regular family with the child. If you see them in Serbia, you would think this is just another completely normal Serbian family.

After the Dubai heist, Laden Lazarevich, the mastermind, and his co conspirator and girlfriend Buyana Mitch returned to Serbia. They had pulled off something truly spectacular. They had plenty of money, and they decided it was time to settle down. Here's a reporter, Ilena Zorich. We're hearing her through a translator.

They prefer a more quiet life. They were buying their apartments, they cut their kids, They had their family life and that worked fine for them.

They get married, have a son, and reportedly open a fitness club in Belgrade. As much as anyone could tell, they were in fact leading a quiet life.

They could live very well in Serbia with the money that they got after each robbery, so they didn't want to complicate things more and go any further. They could feel pretty safe away from Dubai police, away from Interpol.

It's a dream of domestic tranquility paid for by crimes that are firmly in the past. But in twenty thirteen, a bomb is discovered under Boyana Mitach's car. Luckily it falls to the ground without detonating. The police are called and when they questioned the couple laden Boyana express total shock. Who could possibly want to kill them? I'm Natalia Antalava. I'm a journalist based in Eastern Europe, and I'm going to take you into the world of Serbia's most brazen jewel thieves.

The most daring and successful diamond things in the world.

Thirty to forty seconds and help.

They've stolen a half of billion dollars of the valuable.

Two well dressed men strolled into an exclusive jewelry store in London and walked out with sixty six million dollars in jewels. They called the Pink Panthers, their loosely connected crew of over educated, underemployed ambitious young people who rose from the ashes of the Yugoslav Wars of the nineteen nineties to commit elaborate smash and grab heists all across the globe, often in broad daylight. This is infamous international The Pink Panther's Story, episode nine, Crime Doesn't Pay.

He did a couple of hides, one of them pretty spectacular, but he didn't have the reason to believe that someone would want to kill him in Serbia.

It's been six years since the waffe heist in Dubai, and although Vladen Lazarevich planned and led that job, he has seemingly gotten out of the game. It was Milan Lipoya who had taken most of the spotlight in the years since Serbian investigative journalist Helena's rage.

Milan in fact was the most important person after Maladen, but he was presented in the media as the main one, as the number one. Milan didn't mind having this reputation. He liked the role to be presented in the media as the main one.

Milan also returned to Serbia, but he was less interested in settling down. He opened a nightclub. He had a yacht and would cruise the Mediterranean, inviting rich and beautiful people aboard for lavish parties.

His favorite destination when he was sailing on his yacht was between the Italian and French coast, near French Riviera. And during these little crew this oneasyacht, he was spending tons of money hundreds of thousands of euros and his guests were usually the famous businessman and also the world famous models.

Milan is hardly keeping a low profile despite the fact that he's a wanted man.

So during this time there were people who were looking for him, but he was somewhere near frank Riviera having fun, so at that time they didn't find him.

Milan would often videotape his escapades and share them with his friends back in Niche, and every video ends with the same sentence.

The sentence was, well, two days after these parties, after all this fun that I used to have, I didn't have a penny in my pocket, so I had to go and steal again so that I have some money to live with.

And Milan did go and steal again. He continued to pull heists around Europe until he was finally arrested, tried, and sent to prison. He spent nearly a decade behind bars. When he returned home, he didn't last long. The criminal world in Niche had changed become more dangerous As a rival gangs battled for turf. Milan chose a side, and it cost him his life. His violent and had a certain logic to it. But why would Boyana's car be targeted with a car bomb? Both she and her husband

It's very interesting that in our country practically nobody was talking about him until the bomb attempt. That's when the media started talking about him, and that's when they said, okay, this person might be someone who is involved with the Pink Panthers, but they never mentioned it before.

Journalists try to contact Boyana too, but she's not talking utter. Helenazorich reaches out to her repeatedly.

She was not in the mood to give any statement. She refuses any way of communication with anyone.

Buyanna even takes down her Twitter profile.

She used a picture of a diamond as her profile picture, but when they tried to kill her husband, obviously it wasn't funny anymore, so she removed it. Than she she was not active there either.

The case of the attempted bombing is never solved. Then two years after that failed car bomb, there is another attempt on Laden Lazarevich's life. He's waiting at a stoplight in his land robber when an audi pulls up next to him and then jumps out of the audi and approaches Laden's land robber. He Lena Zorich. Again.

This all happened in the suburbs of Belgrade. He was in his car when they started shooting in him, and there were thirty shots.

Somehow Bladin is able to pull away as bullets fly around him, blood pouring down his face, he manages to drive to the nearest hospital. Incredibly, he has suffered only superficial wounds cuts on his face and head from the shattered glass of the windshield. Again, he's questioned by the police, and again he claims he could not be more surprised.

He even says in the hospital that he doesn't understand why it happened to him because he didn't have any enemies, so he wasn't sure who would want to kill him.

Bladen is well aware that whoever is trying to kill him is still out there. The police assigned a guard to stay outside his hospital.

Room, and of course he didn't feel safe, so his friends managed to take him from the hospital. They practically kidnapped him from the hospital.

Even with the police officers stationed outside his room, London manages to leave with his friends as an extra precausion picked him up in an armored car.

The person who provided this armored car. His name is the Dragon.

Mikic, Dragon Mackage, a name we've heard before. I spoke to my colleague, reporter Elan Greenberg, who gave me some context. Elans, the last time we were talking about Dragon Mackage, that was when he broke out of a French prison and then he basically vanished, He disappeared, and because of that, I was a bit shocked when Helena Zorich suddenly mentioned him again.

Well, look, if you think about it, Serbia's a small country, niche is a small city, and these guys, even if they're not part of a you know, a unified criminal syndicate, they're still all in the same business. They're like friendly associates.

Sure, sure that all makes sense, but can you just bring us up to speed on who this guy, Dragon Mickage is.

Yeah, his name comes up all the time and stories about Pink Panthers. People say he's one of the leaders of the gang. And you know, he's a big guy. He's like six foot six with muscles and top of muscles. Remember that the Paris police detective Ever Kannan said that Mikish did two thousand push ups a day in prison, so he's an intimidating presence and pretty clearly he's someone

Where apparently he has access to an armored car he can leand to his friendly associate Laden Lazarvich when he needs one.

Right, Yeah, and more than that, because don't forget Milanin is in the hospital, he's recovering from his injuries. He has a police guard sitting right outside his room. Dragon Mekish also helps with that, does he now, Yes, Mikish

So with the help of his friends, Laden is safe again and now he's not taking any chances.

Madame Lazareg has his own security and these are actually the ex members of the special police Units against terrorism. Some of them actually are working like a private security and that's what he has at this moment.

But why would anyone want to kill Vladen the former jewel thief turned family man. Based on her reporting and sources, Yelena Zorich has an idea.

So all those stories about his family life with Buena, with his wife, that's actually not happening anymore and he's doing something completely different. Maladen Lazarevich's life is much more dangerous today than what it used to be when he was in Pink Panther because he is the most powerful cocaine a dealer in our country.

Yeladasorig believes that Ladon Lazarevich is in all likelihood a powerful crime boss. Based on recent reporting, we think that he's likely working for Klan America, a Balkan gang with connections to the South American drug trade. So this image of the quiet family life with Boyana, it's a front.

Boyanav is someone who is the wife of an arko boss, definitely, and he is not just any narko boss. He is the most important man in this area.

Ladon Lazarevitch celebrated his thirty seventh birthday in twenty twenty one. The party brought out some notable guests.

It's known as a fact, for example, that the last year he celebrated his birthday in the town of Nish and for this celebration for his birthday other people who were invited those were also other big cocaine bosses of West Balkans and police is aware of what's happening and who is right there, but there is no reaction from their part whatsoever.

All of this might explain Whydin wasn't questioned more forcefully by the police after he was attacked, why his police escort allowed him to leave the hospital in that armored car, and why his name had not been publicly associated with any major crimes.

The police and prosecutors when they hear his name in a connection with any murder or any severe crime, they simply just ignore it. And when you ask around in a niche about him, people are just scared. They don't want to share anything with you. He is a very dangerous man and he is more dangerous than he ever used to be before.

We asked OLIVERA. Tcherkovic, the former basketball star and convicted Pink Panther, for her thoughts about Bloodin.

To toyblo Robe.

Her son Nicholas is translating here.

I was not the part of the team who did it in Dubai. We can talk about the guys who were in Dubai because two of them are close friends of us, so we really know the story, but I don't want to speak of them.

Over the past several years, the criminal underworld in the Balkans has come to be dominated by two major clans, the Kavakhs and the Scalieris in twenty twenty one about thirty criminals associated with the kavak where rest and charged with multiple counts of kidnapping, rape and murder, including the killing of Milan Li Puya. As of this recording, trials are still ongoing in Belgrade. It has become a media sensation throughout the Balkans.

Tabloid media are all over it. You have front pages full of physic gluesome bloody details.

Ivan and Gaelovski is a Serbian investigative journalist now based in Canada. He says that local tabloids are obsessed with all the grisly details that are emerging from the trial.

It's not easy to read front pages where you can see pictures of people smiling holding other people's severed heads, which you can see right now or on front pages of some of Serbian tabloids. So it's very chilling atmosphere.

The court proceedings have offered a particularly graphic look inside the dangerous world of drug trafficking.

They have several insider witnesses and they don't spare any words in describing the grusolness of those murders. They would photograph their victims and they would send those images and videos to their bosses, and one message, if I remember correctly, was can you see this boss? It's Mexico in central Belgrade, so you can say that they were implementing brutal practices of criminal groups in South America. It's the same region that they would traffic the cocaine front.

But the trial is drawing attention for more than its corey details.

The trial is heavily politicized and everyone is following it because of political connections.

As we've heard before from numerous journalists based in the Balkans. In Serbia, the ties between organized crime and the state run deep, and according to Angelovsky, that's particularly true in the case of the Kavakh Klan.

They have you know their financial interests, they have their political connections. It is often considered that the members of this group are in one way or the other connected to the ruling party here in Belgrade, So everything around them has political consequences.

And as we've seen, whenever crime and politics intermingo and Serbia, soccer or football is usually somewhere in the mix too.

So the group that's on trial, they are members of an organized brand group, but they're also supporters of a football team in Belgrade. It's often considered that who leads the supporters on football stadiums, they lead the narcotics trade in country. So the group that's on trial are the main traffickers of cocaine from South America to Europe.

Reporter Evan and Gilowski thinks all this media focus on the Serbian government's alleged ties to organized crime is unlikely to do much to stem the country's corruptions.

It's not the first time we're seeing this. We were in this situation before. You know, first democratically elected Prime minister of Serbia, Zorojinich, was murdered in two thousand and three. We had a similar atmosphere as we have now. Back then the organized crime killed the Prime Minister, and that was a watershedting moment because people figured out how deep politics was involved with organized crime. Because you know, organized crime never died down. We are now seeing this.

Two of the defendants who testified in the trial admitted that they actually work for the Serbian government, claiming they've met several times with the country's current president, Alexander Vocich, who asked them to perform various quld unquote favors over the years. Vutich has publicly denied all of these allegations.

It's important just to remember this information. A Malad and Lazarevich in a niche he had a nickname, and his nickname is Ladentu. That's like a little Maladen.

Little Mladen, acute nickname for someone who's potentially a very dangerous man. Yelena's richest source tells her that Mladen knew that Milan Lepoye had joined up with the rival klan, and he was not.

Pleased the fact that there were tape conversation when there was an investigation about the murder of Yapoya, and in this taped conversation, several times the name of Mladene was mentioned, so he was aware of what's going on with Yepoya and he was not happy with the fact that Yapoya was with the gang of SKAYERI.

It's possible that the so called Little Laden was involved in some way in the murder of his old friend Milan, but so far he has not appeared at the trial.

Despite the fact that the name of Mlada was always present in his conversation, the police actually never invited him to testify.

None of this is proved that Laden Lazarevitch was involved in the killing of Milan le Poya, and Yelena says that she can fully verify this claim. The trial is ongoing as of the recording of this episode. While the cinematic tale of Milan Lipuyan, Milada Lazarevich and Boyana Mitic may sound like something straight out of Hollywood, for Jelena Zorich, there is little to root for in their story.

So many people will probably try to make the story a little bit more romantic. They will probably talk about their spectacular heists, especially the one in Dubai. They're going to tell you how unique, how spectacular this was. But for me, this story is far away from that. It's not just the simple thieves who are maybe interesting to regular people because they steal from the rich. Know that these are thieves who later become a murderers.

These days, alleged Pink Panthers make the occasional appearance in the medium, but more often than not their reports are a bit anti climactic because their highsts aren't successful.

To the index.

Now, in a major takedown overseas police arresting five suspected members of the notorious.

Pink Panther gang during a jewel heist in Barcelona, Reports like this one from ABC News in twenty sixteen about a failed Pink Panther's heist, one where the authorities who are several steps ahead of the would be thieves, are becoming more common, and as Aveko Nan told NPR, one reason for this is geopolitics.

Detective Kanan of the Paris Police says the Pink Panther era is nearly finished. He says most of the thieves hail from Serbia and Mountainegro, which are becoming more willing to hand over suspects to international law enforcements.

Serbian Mantenegro want to go in the European Union, so in the pat that we're untouchable, and now they can be arrested.

The panthers are no longer able to flee back to Serby and live openly and well on their ill gotten gains now that the Serbian government sees more value in extraditing them. Overall, the Ping Panthers simply can't operate the way they once did, and so they've become less of a priority for law enforcement. INTERPOL shut down Ron Nobles Ping Panther task force in twenty sixteen, and recently Interpal itself has come under scrutiny for alleged abuses of its

But they don't do anything to stop it.

So the UA is absolutely abusing that access to the database, but into Pol doesn't want to upset them.

In the past several years, the UAE has publicly donated over fifty million dollars to Interpol an incentive for the international organization to leave well enough alone.

And they're a huge donor, and they're also a partner in fighting other.

Sorts of more high profile crime, and they definitely don't want to lose that relationship. Something else has changed since Boyana, Landon and Milan pulled off their heist at the Waffi Mall in Dubai. According to journalist Devana and Gelowski, the United Arab Emirates and Serbia have developed a much more intimate relationship.

After twenty twelve, UAE and Serbia got into some kind of cooperation from then on. There are lots of Balkan people in ue Now you have some of the main major kingpins of Palkan organized crime living in Uee because of protections they have.

There and Sazangilowski. In twenty thirteen, the Emeratic government began pouring money into infrastructure projects in Serbia.

There are these several projects in Serbia funded by money from UAE. Some suspect that it's actually money from Serbia advent to UAE and then back to Serbia. And there are lots of for example, arms deals, So there are these connections that are basically shady. But all of that comes after Dubai heist.

As for Interpose energetic young Secretary General Ron Noble, who championed the organization's pursuit of the Ping panthers. He retired from Interpol in twenty sixteen to enter the private sector. He now has a number of business interests in Dubai.

Why do people get driven to a life of crime?

Former interpoal director with in Salesgabor I.

Think certainly in the recent history you've seen people with high skill sets that now are confronted with a economic issue, like in the US Lago when the sanctions came in, they're forced to do other things they'll figure out how to use their skills, whether it be with weapons, with violence, with technology, whether it be state driven or motivated by money.

So I think all of it.

You know, it is the story of crime.

When you become someone who can survive in a broken society, you get creative, you get resourceful.

Reporter Eric Pape has thought a lot about the roads not taken of people like Milani Puya, lad Laza Rich and Boyana Metage, the hypothetical lives they and other Pink Panthers might have had given other circumstances.

In Malcolm X's autobiography, he writes the whole section about all the different people he's doing time with in prison, and at one point he says, you know, there are all these guys. If they had access to a different life, they could have been amazing. And he went crime by crime among his friends in prison and sort of thought, what would they have been like in a better life.

Of course, not every person facing the challenges of life in post war Serbia turned to boosting diamonds from Grafen Harry Winston. Some adapted in other ways that were less criminal in nature. But for Eric Paige, the Big Panthers ultimately may have managed to acquire that one thing that they seem to value lost.

Just the fact that we're talking about this, you know, almost a decade and a half later, tells me that, Yeah, it was a really great yarn. And I think that authors of this yarn aren't the Pink Panthers themselves. They seem to have been brilliant in their choice of crimes, but they also told a story. I think it's the reason that we are still talking about it.

That's it for this season of Infamous International, The Story of the Pink Panthers. I'm Natalia Antalava of Koda Story. Thank you for listening. Infamous International The Pink Panthers Story was produced by Best Case Studios in association with Koda Story, hosted by me Natalia Antalava, and written by Katrina Wolfe, Adam Pinkis, Suszanne Myers, and David Markowitz, with help from