Police Break Up EBay Gang

An Oceans 11-style crime syndicate that carried out more than 200 highly planned jewellery raids across Europe has been smashed by police.
Forces in seven European countries have broken up the network which channeled more than £25m from jewel heists into drugs and real estate.
The money came from highly choreographed raids on jewellers, mainly in northern Italy, with the goods fenced on eBay and through pawn shops, Europol said.
Police made 35 arrests after swooping on the homes of suspects in Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Spain, France and Germany.
Italian police have been working on the case since 2005.
The gang usually worked in teams of four thieves to rob high-end jewellery stores in operations often lasting less than a minute, said the agency, which coordinates police intelligence throughout Europe.
Stores in at least a dozen other countries were targeted.
Without intelligence cooperation, "it is very unlikely those countries would have known that the group responsible was one and the same," Europol director Max-Peter Ratzel said.
Spokesman Soren Pedersen said more arrests were expected around Europe. "This is just the start of a major police operation," he said.
The stolen items were swiftly moved out of their country of origin and sold, allegedly to finance hashish and cocaine trafficking from Spain to Scandinavia.