£26m celebrity burglaries suspect arrested in Serbia
- Published
Items worth £25m were stolen from the west London mansion of Tamara Ecclestone
A man accused of being involved in one of the biggest burglaries in English history has been arrested in Serbia.
He and five others were arrested in Belgrade for alleged money laundering offences, the Metropolitan Police said.
The man is alleged to have been part of raids on the London homes of three celebrities in December 2019 where £26m of valuables were taken.
The biggest came at the home of Tamara Ecclestone where £25m of jewellery, cash and other items were stolen.
The other burglaries targeted homes belonging to the former Chelsea and England footballer Frank Lampard, and the now-deceased former owner of Leicester City, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.
Most of the stolen jewellery and valuable watches have never been recovered.
Last year, three Italians - Jugoslav Jovanovic, Alessandro Maltese and Alessandro Donati - were jailed for 28 years in total after pleading guilty to conspiracy to burgle.
Isleworth Crown Court heard the gang targeted Ms Ecclestone's palatial home on one of the most expensive streets in the world opposite Kensington Palace, which the Formula 1 heiress shares with her husband Jay Rutland.
The couple had left for a Christmas holiday in Lapland hours earlier.
Police believe the man known to them as Daniel Vukovic left Heathrow Airport for Belgrade in December 2019
Many of the rooms inside the mansion were cleared of valuables. In just over an hour, the burglars made off with 400 items of jewellery and large sums of cash.
Most of the stolen jewellery and valuable watches have never been recovered.
An international hunt was launched by the Metropolitan Police for a fourth suspect known to the force as Daniel Vukovic.
A BBC investigation found authorities have linked Mr Vukovic to other alleged burglaries across Europe. He is believed to have used at least 19 identities.
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Efforts to extradite him - under the name Ljubomir Romanov - were denied by Serbia's High Court last July.
Details in a court document said "Ljubomir Romanov" is a "legal resident" of Serbia and therefore the legal basis for extradition was not met.
On Wednesday, the Met Police said one of the six men arrested in Belgrade for money laundering was "wanted by detectives investigating a series of high-value burglaries committed in Kensington and Chelsea in December 2019".
It is understood the alleged money laundering offences are linked to the burglaries in London.
There is no indication at this stage that UK authorities have renewed their extradition request.
The burglars used crowbars as they spent an hour ransacking the Kensington mansion of Tamara Ecclestone
An extradition treaty agreement signed by Serbia and the UK in December 1900 says each country can deny extradition of its own citizens.
In a statement Serbian police confirmed six members of an "organised criminal gang" were arrested and "many searches" across the country were taking place.
Two more suspects were abroad, police said, adding the group's activities stretched from February 2018 until earlier this month.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, the group "invested the money acquired through criminal activity in the purchase of real estate and thus introduced it into legal cash flows".