Queen Panther, head of the world’s biggest diamond heists, tells all

How does an elite athlete from a respectable background wind up an international jewel thief? Former Pink Panther Olivera Cikovic breaks her silence and talks to Rebecca Banovic

Cikovic: ‘I am an athlete after all, so I disciplined my team’ (EPA)

One warm Mediterranean night, three men and a woman pulled up alongside a jewellers. The plan was simple: break in, grab what they could, and escape. A snatch and grab robbery, they’d be gone in under a minute. No one expected such a robbery on Crete – an island of just 600,000 people. Once it was done, the robbers would simply vanish among thousands of tourists.

Leading the thieves that night was Olivera Cirkovic, an elite athlete and former professional basketball player. Her robbery went off without a hitch. But it only took a farcical mistake to turn this unexpected criminal mastermind into a prisoner.

“A routine traffic stop later that night led to my arrest and conviction,” says Olivera, recalling the arrest. “My accomplice forgot the cutting equipment he’d left in the boot,” she added, rolling her eyes.