Five Serbians wanted across Europe over 2022 TEFAF jewel heist
Prosecutors and police have put four men and a woman on the European Most Wanted list and are offering a €20,000 reward for a tip that leads to an arrest.
Four men and a woman from Serbia were added to the European Most Wanted fugitives list on 29 October over the jewel robbery at the TEFAF art fair in Maastricht on 28 June 2022. The Public Prosecution Service (OM) and police say all five were involved. They are also on the Nationale Opsporingslijst, the Dutch national wanted list, and have been wanted internationally since April.
The suspects are Aleksandar Cenic (50), Aleksandar Stojiljkovic (50), Dusko Dimitrijevic (50), Bratislav Stojanovic (41) and Ninoslava Jovic (41). The wanted people can be viewed on the police website, politie.nl.
The OM and police say the suspects used heavy violence to break into display cases holding valuable jewels and escaped with a haul worth millions. Three diamonds from the loot have been recovered: one surfaced in Botswana earlier this year, one is in Hong Kong and one in Israel.
The OM and police believe the suspects are in the Serbian city of Niš or around Belgrade. Despite working with several countries, with help from Europol and Eurojust, they have arrested none of them. Serbia does not extradite its own citizens, so no arrest is possible while they stay there. Investigators hope to have them arrested in another country.
“We have gained insight into names, aliases, imagery and the places where the suspects may be,” the investigation leader said. The public prosecutor said the listing is meant to produce tips on the suspects’ travel movements, raising the chance of an arrest. “After more than four years of investigation, much has been achieved,” the prosecutor said, adding that international cooperation, which runs on protocols and procedures, made the case slow.
The OM offers €20,000 for information leading to the arrest of one of the suspects.
The investigation also links at least one of the five to an earlier attempted robbery at the Maastricht fair in March 2020. That suspicion rests on Sky ECC information the investigation team recently received via Europol.
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TEFAF
TEFAF is an international art and antiques fair held every year in Maastricht, where dealers show fine art, antiques, jewellery and design. In the Netherlands it is one of the best-known art fairs, and its security and valuable exhibits make it a target for organised theft.
Nationale Opsporingslijst
The Nationale Opsporingslijst (National Investigation List) is the list of suspects that the Dutch police and Public Prosecution Service (OM) publish so the public can help find them. It includes photos and details of people being sought in serious criminal cases, and members of the public can report sightings or information.
Sky ECC
Sky ECC was an encrypted messaging service that ran on specially modified phones and was widely used by criminal networks to communicate. Dutch and other European police have used messages recovered from it as evidence in criminal investigations, with cooperation coordinated through Europol.