Tokyo Diamond Heist Suspect Returns to Japan
Rifat Hadziahmetovic, a member of the “Pink Panther” crime ring that was responsible for a multi-million dollar diamond heist from a Ginza jewelry store in 2007, is back in Japan after having been arrested in Spain:
According to the MPD, Hadziahmetovic and an accomplice stole jewelry worth about 284 million yen, including a diamond tiara valued at 200 million yen, from a shop in Ginza on June 14, 2007. The MPD has arrested Hadziahmetovic on suspicion of robbery and injurious assault.
Hadziahmetovic was first arrested in Cyprus in March 2009 when he tried to leave the country for Lebanon. He was later extradited to Spain over a separate robbery in that country. Spanish authorities handed him over to an MPD officer on board an airplane bound to France, after taking him to the airport from prison.
According to police investigators, the Pink Panther group has freed members from jail on five occasions from 2004 through 2008, including one in France in which a senior member of the group escaped after men believed to be Pink Panther members shot at the jail with machine guns.
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