Members of the international network of jewel thieves known as the Pink Panthers, have staged a daring assault on a Swiss prison in order to set two inmates, and members of the gang.
Milan Poparic, a 34-year-old Bosnian member of the gang escaped with a fellow inmate after receiving help from two other Pink Panther members. Poparic was serving a six-year and eight-month sentence for robbing a Swiss jewelry store in 2009. According to AtlanticWire, the gang members on the outside drove two vans into the prison's barbed-wire fence system while inmates were in the yard getting exercise. The two suppressed guards who tried to help by spraying AK-47 fire as they set up ladders for Poparic and his friend to hop the fence and get into one of the vans. The other fan was set on fire to distract the guards and cover the culprits escape.
The Pink Panthers have allegedly stolen around $396 million worth of jewels across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North America since 1999. If the group's name sounds familiar, it's because it got its name after some jewels were found submerged in face cream in the same way used by thieves in the classic comedy movie of the same name.
The real surprise is that this is not the group's first prison break. In May, a group of Pink Panthers helped two fellow gang members escape from a Bois-Mermet prison in another dramatic escape. So far there is no word on why the Pink Panthers need so many members.
Beatrice Metraux, the prison chief of the Swiss province where the incident took place, argued that this wasn't a typical jail break. "This is an invasion, rather than an escape, orchestrated by a heavily armed organized gang," she told reporters. AtlanticWire reports that, to make matters worse, police weren't even able to tell what direction the jewel thieves went in after the raid.
