The Last Panthers: the real thieves who inspired the story

A brand new crime drama series called The Last Panthers will make its UK premiere on Sky Atlantic tomorrow. The thriller, which features a stellar cast, is inspired by a real-life gang of Balkan jewel thieves called the Pink Panthers.

The six-part crime drama, created by This is England writer Jack Thorne, stars Samantha Morton, Tahar Rahim and John Hurt, with a theme song by David Bowie. Morton, who plays a loss adjuster, joins forces with her boss (Hurt) and a cop (Rahim) in an attempt to recover the diamonds stolen in a daring jewel heist that's reminiscent of an actual robbery carried out by the Pink Panthers.

So who are the Pink Panthers and how do they operate?

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A gang of international jewel thieves with links to Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia, the Pink Panthers are responsible for numerous large-scale heists on jewellery stores which have netted them a hefty £240m worth of jewels.

The gang first came to attention in 1993, and earned their nickname the Pink Panthers after the Sixties crime caper film The Return of the Pink Panther. A £500,000 blue diamond ring was stolen from a jewellers in Mayfair, central London, and later discovered by police in a jar of face cream belonging to a girlfriend of one of the thieves, almost exactly like the movie plot. The press noted the similarity and the name stuck.

The exact origins of the gang are unclear, but the group emerged in the early Nineties following the break-up of the former communist state of Yugoslavia and during the ethnic conflicts in the Balkans.

A report in the Daily Telegraph, suggests that men connected with the Serbian government made a deal that gave them free reign to steal abroad and invest their money at home. The group expanded to create a secretive network throughout the Balkans and beyond.

The gang targeted Western Europe, stealing from the rich and soon developing a Robin Hood reputation in Serbia. And because most of the robberies are covered by insurance, they appeared to be committing victimless crimes.

Havana Marking, who made the 2013 documentary Smash & Grab about the gang, describes one of their most daring and notorious raids, in The Guardian. The gang crashed through the glass doors of the exclusive Wafi shopping mall in Dubai in two Audis, before making off with jewels worth £3.4m.

The security footage resembles a movie, says Marking. "Really it's just a typical night's work for the Pink Panthers – the most successful diamond-thieving gang in history."

Their exploits have become the stuff of legend, says Marking, with glamorous assignments ranging from London to Tokyo, and Geneva to Singapore, and daring escapes using speedboats, scooters and bicycles.

Some of the thieves have been caught. In 2007 Interpol created the Pink Panther Working Group and for the first time global police forces were able to share information, including DNA evidence that was used to trace two men to the Wafi Mall heist, but not the woman who drove the second car.

Marking says one of the reasons why the gang hasn't been stopped is that it is actually a loosely affiliated network of an estimated 200 to 220 people, who often use elaborate disguises and rely on porous borders for their movement.

Interpol likens their structure to al-Qaeda – the ultimate contemporary crime gang – in that it is a series of cells that come and go overnight, working independently. They share methods, contacts and origins, but it is to everyone's advantage that links remain tenuous.

And when older members retire or go to ground, there are always new ones ready to sign up, mostly unemployed Balkan men with no prospects, who are willing to join in the action and the spoils.

The Last Panthers airs on Sky Atlantic at 9pm on Thursday 12 November at 9pm.