The police are on the trail of the jewel thieves - four years after the brazen millionaire coup

It was a Tuesday afternoon in June 2022 that the well-dressed men stepped into the annual art fair "The European fine art fair" in Maastricht - one of the world's foremost with both modern and classic objects.

Surveillance footage shows the group stopping at one of the glass cases. One of the men takes out a sledgehammer and smashes the glass while another brandishes what looks like a firearm.

In an instant, the men fill their pockets with jewelry before fleeing the fair and the injured visitors on electric scooters. Among the trinkets was a necklace with a bright yellow diamond of 114 carats. The stolen goods are valued at around the equivalent of SEK 440 million.

The brazen coup received a lot of attention, not least on social media where many made fun of the men's clothing style, which appeared to be inspired by the gangster drama series "Peaky Blinders".

Over the years, three diamonds have been found: one in Botswana, one in Hong Kong and one in Israel - but no perpetrators.

Early on, the investigators directed their suspicions towards the Balkans and the infamous criminal network "The Pink Panthers". Four years later, police and prosecutors believe they know who was behind the robbery and last week four men and one woman, all Serbian citizens, were placed on Europol's "most wanted" list.

The woman must have arranged for the rental cars that were used before and after the robbery. With the cars, they managed to escape back to Serbia via, among other places, Belgium, Germany, Austria and Hungary.

"As long as they remain in Serbia, however, there is no possibility of making an arrest. After all, Serbia does not extradite its own citizens. We therefore hope that we can get them arrested in another country," says the prosecutor in a press release.

The Dutch public prosecutor's office has offered a reward of 20,000 euros for tips leading to the arrest of the suspects. The insurance company linked to the stolen jewels in turn promises a reward of 500,000 pounds, equivalent to 6.6 million kroner, for information that leads to the jewels being returned.