PODGORICA, June 15, 2009 (AFP) - Montenegro's police force arrested a member of the "Pink Panther" gang notorious for jewellery shop robberies in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, reports said Monday 15 June.

Vladimir Lekic was detained Sunday 14 June in his home in the central town of Cetinje by police acting on an Interpol arrest warrant, said the Dan and Vijesti newspapers, citing a police statement.

Police said Lekic was detained on suspicion he stole watches worth one million euros (1.4 million dollars) from a jeweller in Frankfurt, Germany in December 2003.

They said he was a member of the Pink Panthers, a gang of thieves with an estimated 60 members from the former Yugoslavia, around half of them Montenegrins.

The group is suspected of carrying out raids in the Mediterranean millionaires' playground of Monte Carlo and the chic French Channel resort of Le Touquet, as well as in Germany and the Swiss cities of Lausanne and Geneva.

It is also behind robberies carried out as far afield as the United States, Japan and the United Arab Emirates, where the Panthers carried out a spectacular heist.

Lekic is expected to face justice in Montenegro, as the Balkan country has no extradition agreement with Germany.