Park. In seconds youre out of the country. So we have one minute to catch them. And that was it. How much were those watches worth . Around 600,000 euros. That would make people sit up and take notice. And heres the thing. That video is just one of hundreds recorded all over the world. These are heists that play like some sort of twisted criminal movie franchise. But theyre all too real. Copenhagen denmark, a fancy hotel, an exclusive Little Jewelry shop just off the lobby. Security cameras showed a welldressed man. He entered, two other men rushed in behind him. The irs pulled a gun, the other smashed cases as the first kept watch at the door. Grabbing over a Million Dollars of merchandise along with them. Dubai, united arab emirates. A luxury mall in the middle of the day. Startled shoppers click on their camera phones as two audis crashed into a boutique. In under a minute two men grabbed 14 million worth of jewelry. On their way out, they got off a couple of shots and then they drove off. It all happened in broad daylight in front of surveillance cameras in the steelstrap secure capitals of the worlds wealthiest people. It would take police years to realize it but they were up against a whole new kind of gang. They are notorious, theyre dangerous, and they are persistent. So bold and mercenary that perhaps you could call them commercial terrorists. They can find people in every country in europe. Vicious and precise. The attack is so quick, people are so surprised. They slipped in and out of countries at lightning speed. They cross borders very easily. They overwhelm the defenses of some of the worlds top jewelers. They opened the door or i kill you. They toyed with police. They seemed to hunt their glittering prey at will. Its like a military operation. And yet for years no one realized that all these crimes were connected. It is not a hierarchical structure. And thats what makes them so effective. Tonight were on their trail. And it will lead us through the most bejeweled cities in the world, from new york to paris to geneva and others an International Manhunt for this daring elusive network of thieves. Well take you inside Law Enforcements battle their decades along investigation to figure out, first, who are these people, who are their diabolical masterminds and how can they be stopped . Well meet some of their seductive women, their secret weapons. She was very beautiful, beautiful girl. But for every job shed have to change her look. And well see what it may be like to be one of these young criminals in training. It is really like a movie . And, as well discover, maybe in some ways it is. But first, back to the beginning. We traced the gangs meteoric rise. How the heists got more and more daring and the spoils reached the stratosphere. When you talk about hitting a Jewelry Store, they get away with how much merchandise, how much money . Then a pattern detected. The surprising thing that thieves had in common. You are loved in so many different ways thats why youre wrapped in the comfort of pampers swaddlers with blanketlike softness and up to 12 hours of protection so all you feel is love. Wishing you love sleep and play. Pampers i know what youre thinking, but this is the improved i cant believe its not butter 100 taste, 0 artificial preservatives. Made with a blend of delicious oils, purified water, and just a pinch of salt. Two, please. I cant believe its not butter. 100 taste, 0 artificial preservatives. Does your makeup remover take it all off . Every kissproof cryproof, stayproof look . Neutrogena® makeup remover does. It erases 99 of your most stubborn makeup with one towelette. Need any more proof than that . Neutrogena. Music throughout whatever wakes your baby at night pampers believes it should never be a wet diaper for up to 12 hours of protection pampers hows it progressing with the prisoner . Hell tell us everything he knows very shortly, sir. As you were. Where were we . 13 serving 14 service if your boss stops by, you act like youre working. Its what you do. If you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. Its what you do. Ugh. Does your carpet ever feel rough and dirty . Dont avoid it. Resolve it. Our new formula not only cleans and freshens but also softens your carpet so its always inviting. Resolve. A carpet that welcomes you. You are loved in so many ways thats why youre wrapped in the blanketlike softness and protection of pampers swaddlers so all you feel is love. Pampers the people were going to show you in action tonight are the members of the most wanted gang of jewel thieves the world has ever known. So brazen hightech surveillance cameras didnt deter them. And as we learn, so secretive that back in the beginning not a cop on the globe had a clue that there was even a gang let alone who they were. Where do the trails start . On dateline we began our own look into this notorious group in 2010, and our investigation led us first not to paris or monaco or dubai, but just down sixth avenue from Rockefeller Center to the diamond district of new york city. The year 1988. The crime apparently isolated. A Diamond Wholesalers vault was ransacked. Now fastforward five years. 1993. Basel, switzerland. The european jewelry and watch fair. Three diamonds valued over 3. 5 million vanished. 1994 around the globe in tokyo, an Upscale Department store, three watches worth thousands upon thousands of dollars. Months later honolulu. A place called the goaden boutique. Four men said to be dressed to the nines, a Million Dollars worth of watches gone. With heist after heist, a pattern was emerging. Except as we found out, no one could see it at the time. For one thing, as former interpol chief ron noble told us other problems seemed more pressing back then. In 1993 1994 the u. S. Had a crime epidemic robberies, rapes, murders, violent crime. Also people might forget in early 1993 is when the First World Trade Center bomb ogging occurred. So the u. S. As many other countries were focused on terrorism as well. And as we learned, there was another reason too. This was a pre9 11 era where police did not routinely share information. The Standard Operating Procedure was you collect fingerprints witness testimony and you put it in a database and you compare it against other information from your own country. You dont compare it internationally. Of course, the internet had barely begun. Google was just a funny word. Email only for nerds. Cell phones were still a luxury item back then and connections among National Police forces were rare. All in all, a great time to be an international jewel thief. But then one of the thieves made a mistake. He got caught. 1995, new york city. The fbi arrested a guy named alexander gupkvic for the honolulu robbery and then they checked the records and it turned out the nypd had arrested ako, as he was known for short, for boosting a bunch of diamonds from the diamond district right here. He was a canadian citizen, spoke very little english. Turned out he was from yugoslavia. Finally they put out the word internationally, anybody ever heard of this guy . Well, in fact somebody had. Ako was wanted in that 1993 robbery in basel, switzerland. Whats more we learned that the expensive watch he was wearing when Police Arrested him was one of the three stolen from the store in tokyo in 1994. Thats how police linked one man to all the high profile heists. By 1996 he was marking time on a u. S. Prison clock. So with this big fish in Lockup Police told us they naturally assumed they cracked a busy but singular operation. A oneman theft machine. But then something strange. The robberies didnt stop. Far from it. We found reports from all over the globe of these highly distinctive operations, all so similar. So quick, inventive, bold. But because Law Enforcement at the time didnt have any way to look at the whole picture, they didnt make the connection. We talked to british journalist Havana Marking who has closely tracked the history of this gang of thieves. Europe was just their playground, basically. They just knew that as long as they were over the border, they would get away with it. So the robbers dance in and out of country after country, the police plotting behind. Where they could fly into a country, commit a robbery, leave the country and for the most part the investigation would be of nationals others in the country. Then finally a few began to see it. We follow the trail to geneva switzerland, to speak to the swiss equivalent of the fbi. Back then he was one of the cops trying to figure out just who these people were. When did you first begin to notice some of these robberyies that were unusual or different . I think it was in geneva in 2002. At the beginning they were organized like small gangs. But how many gangs were there . Were they acting independently or were they somehow related . Part of something bigger . So many questions. Not many answers. One day it might be person a and person b, next person it would be a and c. Even as cops around the world struggled to figure out what was happening, the thieves were getting more and more sophisticated. Bigger schemes, more loot. Were in place van damme in paris. The heart of the world, some would say. Certainly the world of jewelry. In this 200 square meter area theres perhaps more expensive jewelry than any other place on the face of the globe. Then it happened here. 2001 the boucheron flagship store. Two men dressed in cover alls heated the windows with a portable torch. They melted off the security coating, hammered out the windows, made off with 1. 5 million worth of goods. When you talk about hitting a Jewelry Store, they get away with how much how much merchandise . How much money . It depends on the cases. Sometimes it could be 200 watches. After each heist, the detectives pored over the videotapes and the witness accounts, and they started to notice one thing the thieves seemed to have in common. We just know they were people coming from montenegro or serbia. What used to be called yugoslavia. The same place that was home to that thief the fbi nabbed in new york. A few slavic names, not much to go on. But soon the group would get another name one lifted straight from the movies. And the cops would form a reallife plan to battle them. Coming up the gang gets a hollywood nickname and seems to enjoy it. The pink panthers that i spoke to also really liked the term. They thought it was funny. But then the thieves make a critical error that could be their undoing. S it seemed no Jewelry Store was safe. From the mysterious and brazen band of thieves that was smashing their glass cases all around europe. Well, the police a step behind struggled with their few little pieces to solve an enormous puzzle. And then it happened. Imitated art and the thieves got their name. London 2003 the Graff Flagship store. Here they are, two of them and they work fast. 14 million worth of gems including several yellow diamonds and a rare blue diamond ring. It was the thieves biggest hit yet, britains biggest robbery ever. The chase and scuffle ensued. A Security Guard nappedbbed one of the thieves on the spot a serbian, but his accomplice got away and with most of the jewels. He stashed some with a local fixer and fled to the uk. Scotland yard got lucky. They found the fixer, also a serbian, holed up in a london flat with his girlfriend who had hidden that blue diamond ring in a jar of cold cream. The tactic as the tabloids screamed, came straight out of the movie return of the pink panther. Pink panther, irresistible. Of course, the name stuck. From then on if a heist is committed by a serbian, and quite a few were, the papers and the Police Called it a pink panther crime. The pink panthers that i spoke to also really liked the term. They also thought it was funny. Police believed the thieves were flaunting that new moniker. Notice the color of their shirts in this video. Maybe the name gave them motivation, too, because after 2003, the speed and the boldness of their heists as the video showed increased. Biarritz, france they painted a bench outside a jewelry shop thus discouraging potential witnesses from sitting down as they robbed the place. 2004, the paris antiques fair at the louvre museum, under bright lights and heavy security displayed a 16 million diamond. Then the prime ministers wife arrived. And eyes were distracted. The diamond vanished. 2005 brussels. In full view of Jewelry Store surveillance cameras four thieves took axes to the display cases and made off with over 500,000 worth of gems. Then in 2007 as we showed you before, two pink panthers hit sundrenched superrich monaco. And that heist it turned out, was a critical mistake. Because after the robbery, little monacos police chief decided it was time to get tough. Oh, no not the way you might think. He didnt hire cops or buy guns. He called interpol. I asked interpol to organize a meeting between all the countries who had robberies made by the pink panthers. Interpol is a Global Police organization tracking the worlds criminals and crime syndicates. Why did you think interpol was the right way to go . Because its one of the organizations where we can share all the operational informations about this. It was an almost quaint even nerdy approach form a committee . But as former interpol chief ron noble explained, it was a turning point. Monaco should really be given credit. It opened the investigation up because countries came together and said look we want to talk to you about this robbery that occurred. For the first time cops from Different Countries worked as a team and set up a database and there they were. Connections among the robberies they couldnt see before. For example, that heist in dubai 2007, it would be the panthers most spectacular production with those audi cars driving straight into a luxury mall. Afterwards dubai investigators recovered cell phone numbers and dna and fingerprints and sent the information to interpol. We put it in our database and the first hit we had we matched it to a pink panther problemry in liechtenstein. And just like that after 19 years, nearly 100 holdups and almost as many separate investigations the cops finally made the connection that had been there from the start. Suddenly we said wow, the pink panthers theyre actually engaging in robberies around the world. Investigators told us this was something they had never seen before a global conspiracy of thieves. And as they connected the dots the panthers to their crimes they made another connection to the watershed moment that unleashed it all. Good evening. Live from the berlin wall. November 9th, 1989, berlin. What a fine night it was. Or so it seemed to most of the world. With the iron curtain torn it wasnt long before civil wars began to rip apart what was once yugoslavia. Centuries old blood feuds boiled over in ethnic cleansing. By the year 2000 in the merciless world those ugly wars left behind a world devoid of work or hope for a future young men trained to fight turned to crime. These are guys who essentially there was no way out except to become a criminal. Even as those wars turned out this new breed of criminal another Historic Development in the 1990s made transnational crime much easier. The European Union was born and with it relaxed and unguarded borders. With the borders coming down organized crime groups that operated on a National Level were able to operate much more internationally. Thats when here in montenegro groups of des pretty men trained in violence with the ability to cross borders at will began to get a singular idea. And the pink panthers were born. Now the cops had a name and an origin story for these supervillains. But to learn how they operate, that would take more digging. And lead to some surprises. Coming up a rare look inside the gang revealing the secret of their success. Thats where all the real effort goes. And then why the pink panthers have taken on some seductive sidekicks. Its much easier to do it either as a woman or with a woman. Ahhh. Beautiful day in baltimore where most people probably know that geico could save them money on car insurance, right . You see the thing is geico well, could help them save on boat insurance too. Hey okay. Im ready to come in now. Hello . Im trying my best. Seriously, im. Im serious. Request to come ashore. Geico. Saving people money on more than just car insurance. New lipton sparkling iced tea. Refreshing tea infused with light, crisp, tiny bubbles. For a taste that lifts you up. Hmm. Mom, whats a best buy . Um, well its a great product. Its what you buy if youre a smart shopper. Then, why are we buying cascade instead of finish . The amazing clean of finish was rated a best buy three years in a row. Switch and see the difference. Music throughout whatever wakes your baby at night pampers believes it should never be a wet diaper for up to 12 hours of protection pampers i know what youre thinking, but this is the improved i cant believe its not butter 100 taste, 0 artificial preservatives. Made with a blend of delicious oils, purified water, and just a pinch of salt. Two, please. I cant believe its not butter. 100 taste, 0 artificial preservatives. Start the interview with a firm handshake. Ay,no dont do that try new head shoulders instant relief. It cools on contact, and also keeps you 100 flake free. Try new head shoulders instant relief. For cooling relief in a snap. Knowledge is power, as they say. That cops across europe had joined forces and finally knew who they were dealing with was huge but to catch them they had to figure out how these pink panthers really operated. How did they plan and organize their hits . How did they manage to disappear so fast afterward . We look for answers at the next stop on our trail. Paris is one of the places they are always traveling. Paris. We came here to meet French Police captain herve. Why do they pick these beautiful cities . These sort of cities. Not so much in serbia or montenegro. No, you would not find. But the one thing they could find back home was a cache of weapons, many of them left in the ruins of that civil war. Some so of them were in the army so they know the guns. They know how to use a handgun. They used guns to threaten pe