Madrid ( CNN ) -- Years on the run as a suspected member of the feared `` Pink Panthers '' gang of international jewel thieves have ended for a Serbian man who 's been arrested in a Madrid suburb , Spanish police said Wednesday . Police say Borko Ilincic , 33 , took part in a bold robbery of a jewelry store in Dubai in 2007 , when thieves drove two cars inside a shopping mall by the store . Spanish police said that robbery netted 3 million euros ( $ 4 million ) in jewels , but the international police agency Interpol says `` the gang made away with jewelry worth an estimated 11 million ( $ 15 million ) . '' Spanish police say Ilincic is a suspected member of the Pink Panthers gang . Interpol , which had him on its wanted list , says the Pink Panthers are `` behind armed robberies targeting high-end jewelry stores in Europe , the Middle East , Asia and the United States . '' Police in Britain named the gang the `` Pink Panthers '' after the famed movie in which a thief steals the so-called Pink Panther jewel and hides it in a face cream jar to elude detection . In London , a diamond ring stolen in a May 2003 store robbery was hidden in a jar of face cream , and the gang 's nickname was born , an Interpol spokeswoman said by phone from the group 's headquarters in France . Ilincic is facing a life sentence in the United Arab Emirates for the 2007 jewel heist . Spanish police have been on the trail of Pink Panther suspects , and they zeroed in on Ilincic in the town of Alcala de Henares near Madrid . He was arrested Tuesday while driving a rented car after leaving a hotel , police said . Interpol says the Pink Panthers are a `` loosely-aligned network of criminals believed to have carried out robberies in excess of 300 million euros ( $ 448 million ) since 1999 . Hundreds of suspects are linked to more than 340 robberies in 35 countries . '' `` The Pink Panthers ' methods are daring and quick . ... Many gang members are known to originate from the former Yugoslavia , but they work across countries and continents , '' Interpol says on its website . Spanish police released video of the 2007 robbery at the Dubai shopping mall that showed a frightened store employee hiding behind a door while a hooded man , in another room , smashed glass windows to steal jewels . Afterward , the thieves ran to their cars parked inside the shopping mall and sped away . The police footage also shows scenes of the arrest this week in Madrid . A Spanish police spokesman said Madrid officers do n't know if the hooded man in the robbery video is Ilincic .
Milan Ilincic , a 33-year - old Serbian man , has been arrested in a Madrid suburb . Police say he took part in a bold robbery of a jewelry store in Dubai in 2007 . Spanish police say he is a suspected member of the Pink Panther gang . The gang 's behind jewelry store robberies in Europe , the Mideast , Asia and the Americas , Interpol says .