INTERPOL Pink Panthers project meeting brings together international investigators

12 February 2010

BERNE, Switzerland – More than 80 officers from 23 countries have taken part in the 4th INTERPOL operational working group meeting on the Pink Panthers project to pool together the latest intelligence on the international gang of jewel thieves.

The three-day meeting (9-11 February) held in Berne, Switzerland with the support of the Swiss Federal Police, enabled investigators from around the world to exchange and review information to help identify further members, accomplices and other potentially linked crimes. It was the largest such meeting since INTERPOL created the Pink Panthers project in 2007 to co-ordinate the worldwide campaign across its 188 member countries against the crime gang,

The Pink Panthers group, which has hundreds of members, has been linked to armed robberies in the last ten years targeting high-end jewellery stores in Europe, the Middle East, Asia and the United States making the exchange of police information such as fingerprints, photographs and DNA essential.

Co-operation through the Pink Panthers project has already led to the arrest of gang members around the world.

Through its network of 188 member countries and its unique global databases, INTERPOL is ideally placed to assist national law enforcement in identifying, locating and arresting the criminals linked to the Pink Panthers project.