Serbian Organized Crime

[Junior]

Serbian organized crime gang members arrested
Euro Weekly, Friday, May 27, 2011

Six of the 29 people arrested as alleged members of an organized crime gang that burgled more than 100 homes and conducted business scams in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy, were arrested in the Daya Vieja (Alicante Province). The gang was divided into four groups which were based in Orihuela, Hondarribia (Guipuzcoa), Castellon and Portugal. From there they would travel to other locations to conduct the burglaries and scams, according to the National Police.

The group in Orihuela would travel as far as the Andalucian provinces of Seville, Granada and Cordoba. The most active group, in Hondarribia focused mainly on towns in southern France, although to a lesser extent in Navarra and the Basque Country.

Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, Tarragona and Albacete were covered by the group based in Castellon.

The fourth group travelled all around Portugal.

Amongst those arrested was a jeweller who supposedly acted as a ‘fence’ to sell on items stolen by the gang.

Four kilos of jewellery, watches, mink coats, electronic goods, mobile phones and €70,000 in cash was seized during the investigation initiated by a Denia judge.

The burglaries were carried out by women and youngsters who gained access picking the lock and then threatening to cut the property owner’s throat if not enough gold was given.

The scams included posing as foreign investors interested in making currency exchanges in exchange for lucrative commissions.

They would deliver counterfeit notes in exchange for legal tender.

[Junior]

Serbian cops flee threat from gangsters
UPI, July 11, 2011

BELGRADE, Serbia, July 11 (UPI) -- Two top Serbian police commanders cut short their visit to Montenegro when organized crime learned of it, official sources said.

Belgrade's Blic newspaper reported Monday that Rodoljub Milovic, chief of staff for criminal offenses at the Interior Ministry, and Slavisa Sovtic, chief of operational analytics of the Belgrade police, were on a private visit to relatives two weeks ago when the Podgorica mafia found out they were there.

They were near Kotor, where accused drug kingpin Darko Saric has estates. Milovic and Sovtic have been investigating Saric's gang and arresting his associates.

Sovtic also investigated the 2003 assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic by organized crime, and his life was considered in danger.

[Junior]

"Zemun gangster trying to become collaborating witness"
B 92, Tuesday, September 20, 2011

BELGRADE -- The Organized Crime Prosecution believes that a Zemun Clan member is implicating Nebojša Čović in the Đinđić murder in order to become collaborating witness.

The statements made by Miloš Simović - brought up by the lawyer of the mother of Zoran Đinđić on Monday - have previously been heard during the trial, Belgrade-based daily Blic is quoting the prosecution.

The article says that another Zemun gangster. who became collaborating witness - Dejan Milenković aka Bagzi - mentioned Čović by name during the trial of those accused of conspiring to kill Đinđić, and said that gang leader Dušan Spasojević mentioned him. Spasojević was killed by police shortly after the March 2003 assassination.

"The impression is that the Simović brothers have been using that information, trying to exploit it in order to become collaborating witnesses," the newspaper quoted its source from the prosecution.

Meanwhile Čović, who served as PM Đinđić's deputy in the government formed in early 2001, spoke for B92 to reject the accusation that he ordered the killing as "nonsense".

Simović, who was on the run since 2003, but was tried in absentia and sentenced to 30 years in prison, was arrested last year. He was granted a retrial, and told a court in Belgrade last week that he would speak about "the details of the background of the assassination" in a separate trial, but refused to do so during the retrial.

[Carmelo]

Serbia: Police smash heroin smuggling ring, 21 arrested www.laurea-

(AKI) – In coordinated raids in several cities, Serbian police on Friday broke up a heroin smuggling ring arresting 21 people, police director Milorad Veljovic said.

The police seized over 50 kilogrammes of heroin in Belgrade, Kraljevo and the southern city of Novi Pazar. Among those arrested was the ringleader Hikmet Hajrovic, a Muslim who had already been sentenced to five and half years for drug smuggling, Veljovic said.

Balkans have become a main route of drug smuggling from the Middle East to western Europe and 20 people were arrested in 2009 for smuggling over two tones of cocaine from South America.

According to police records, several drug smuggling gangs operate in Serbia. Veljovic said Hajrovic’s gang on the average distributed up to seven kilos of heroine a week in Belgrade alone.


//www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/Security/Serbia-Police-smash-heroin-smuggling-ring-21-arrested_312520536107.html

[Carmelo]

Serbia: 12 sentenced to up to six years for cigarette smuggling

Belgrade, 28 Oct. (AKI) - A Belgrade court on Friday sentenced twelve individuals to up to six years for cigarette smuggling in 1990s and for defrauding the state for 28 million euros and eight million US dollars.

The ringleader of the group, Serbian businessman Stanko Subotic Cane, was sentenced to six years, his nephew Nikola Milosevic got four and a half years and former Serbia’s customs director Mihalj Kertes got your years.

Subotic and three others were sentenced in absentia and have been on the run while

two alleged members of the group were acquitted.

Subotic has been on the run since 2006 and is believed to live in Switzerland. Serbia has issued an international warrant for his arrest, but according to Swiss law there are no legal grounds for his extradition.

Cigarette smuggling was a flourishing business in the Balkans in 1990s, while Serbia was under international sanctions. According to Serbian media, Subotic worked closely with Montenegro political boss and former prime minister Milo Djukanovic.

Djukanovic had been investigated by Italian prosecutors in Bari for alleged multi-million dollars cigarette smuggling to Italy, but no charges were pressed because he was protected by political immunity.

Croatian publishing magnate and owner of the weekly Nacional, Ivo Pukanic, was killed in a gang-style bombing in Zagreb in October 2006, after running series of articles implicating Subotic and Djukanovic in cigarette smuggling.

Pukanic’s sister Anka told Serbian media this week Subotic and Djukanovic were behind her brother’s murder.


http://www.adnkronos.com/IGN/Aki/English/S...2588573215.html

[Junior]

No crime bosses in Serbia, state secretary claims
B92, Sunday, January 8, 2012

BELGRADE -- We have achieved major results in combat against organized crime in the past several years, says Justice Ministry State Secretary Slobodan Homen.

Homen said that for the first time in two decades there were no crime bosses in Serbia.

He added that judicial bodies were now focusing on combating corruption.

"For the first time in almost 20 years, Serbia has nobody who could be called a 'coordinated' boss of the underground. All those who have played the role, or whom the media have described as the leaders of organized crime in Serbia, are today either in prison or on the run in some faraway countries," Homen told Tanjug.

According to him, this is a clear message that the state will not tolerate the establishment of big and powerful criminal clans, as was the case in the past two decades.

“Most cases against members of criminal groups have already had a court epilogue and many have been sentenced to lengthy prison sentences,” the state secretary stressed, adding he expected "the biggest cocaine dealers" would also be sentenced within the year.

"After tackling organized crime and drug dealers, our priority now is fighting high-level corruption, which is like a cancer eating our society," Homen stated.

He said the whole society could not rely on the work of the prosecutor's office, the police and judicial bodies, because their job was to react once corruption had already taken place.

"We will work on preventing corruption and the new strategy, which I expect will be adopted by March, needs to point clearly to ways in which corruption will be prevented," Homen explained.

[Carmelo]

"Triumph over organized crime close at hand"

PRIBOJ -- Serbian President Boris Tadić stated on Friday that Serbia was "just a step away from winning the battle against organized crime".

Serbia is now very close to dealing the final blow to organized crime, and the effect of this action would take several decades to fade away, he underscored.

Commenting on the news about the arrest of Luka Bojovićand other individuals involved in organized crime, Tadić said that Serbia would become one of the few countries in the region which managed to put this matter under control in case information as regards search and arrest of criminals prove true, in addition to the individuals who have already been sentenced to several decades of imprisonment in Serbia.

He recalled that the action was coordinated with Serbian security services, just like some other similar actions elsewhere in the world, which the interior minister also confirmed and announced that he would have talks with the Spanish interior minister on Friday.

Tadić expressed belief that Serbia would attract more substantial investments once all criminals and heads of crime rings are arrested and convicted, since investors want to place their funds only in safe countries.

We are very close to having the issue completed for the sake of our citizens and our children, and to conquering organized crime once and for all, Tadić said.

Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić stated that the Zemun Clan criminal group had practically ceased to exist after the arrests in Spain, and provided a detailed account of the operation carried out in Spain.

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/politics-artic...10&nav_id=78736

[Junior]

Daily: 35 criminal groups active in Montenegro
B92, April 1, 2012

PODGORICA, BELGRADE -- 35 criminal groups are currently active in Montenegro, Belgrade-based daily Večernje novosti has reported.

According to the daily, most of the groups are involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and arms trafficking.

They launder the money they earn through illegal activities by buying valuable real-estate such as hotels, night clubs and luxurious resorts, reads Montenegrin police’s document dubbed “Organized crime danger assessment - OCTA”.

The document represents a roadmap of the organized crime in Montenegro, which is in accordance with the EU standards, and it was done with the help of Austrian experts.

A separate part of the document focuses on organized groups that are involved in drug trafficking and they were divided in northern, central and southern centers.

According to the research, the northern center is a coordination center for heroin distribution. Smuggling routes go from Afghanistan and Turkey through Kosovo and Macedonia to Rožaje. The drugs are then transported to Serbia and Western Europe, Večernje novosti writes.

“The headquarters of the northern center is in Rožaje where majority of criminal groups in the north is located,” reads the OCTA document.

Organizers and members of the main drug trafficking group are connected with criminals from Turkey who order heroin from Afghanistan.

However, most observers say that police are mainly focusing on organizers of smaller groups, street dealers and drug users while the major dealers are rarely arrested.

[Carmelo]

Serbia: Another Day, Another Dead Mobster

22:31, July 4, 2012

Belgrade’s spree of public mob killings continued Tuesday when a car bomb exploded on a busy city street, killing a Montenegrin with ties to fugitive Darko Saric’s drug empire. Radojica Joksovic, 32, died when a bomb exploded under the passenger seat of his Audi A6 in the White Water neighborhood. The car’s driver received only minor injuries, leading police to believe it was a targeted and professional attack to stifle potential testimony against Saric.

The explosion was the third organized crime-related murder in Belgrade since April, and the second in 11 days. Police said none of the crimes were related, but all the victims men had ties to leaders of powerful criminal groups. Two were killed by bomb, another was shot to death. A fourth man – who police and prosecutors say had connections to Saric and jailed boss Joca Amsterdam -- survived a gunshot wound to the head during an apparently botched and amateur attack in Novi Sad on May 11.

Joksovic’s death Tuesday followed several unsuccessful attacks on the property of his uncle, Nebojsa, including multiple rocket-propelled grenades fired earlier this year at a building he owned in Belgrade.

Joksovic grew up in Saric’s hometown of Pljevlje, Montenegro, and he and his uncle Nebojsa, worked for Saric’s gang, according to police and indictments. Nebojsa was particularly close to Saric, the men having been friends since elementary school. Nebosja served as Saric’s director of operations in Italy, according to law enforcement sources and court records.

But the group had a falling out after a series of high profile arrests in an international operation dubbed “Balkan Warrior.’’ Saric and 19 associates were charged with smuggling after a ship containing more than two tons of cocaine was seized off the coast of Uruguay in 2009. Saric remains on the run.

Nobojsa Joskovic was captured in January, 2010 and quickly became an informant against his longtime friend. He has been living under police guard since, according to Belgrade media reports.

Tuesday’s murder sparked immediate speculation in both the law enforcement community and among the local press. The newspaper Kurir quoted Serbian law enforcement sources and others as saying the hit appeared to be a “classic,’’ mafia message intended to scare Nobojsa to stop testifying against Saric and his gang. The newspaper sources speculated that since the criminals couldn’t reach Nebojsa directly, they would attack his family members.

But the newspaper Blic and its sources had a different take. It quoted law enforcement sources as saying they believed that after Balkan Warrior, Radojica left Saric’s gang to joint a rival criminal organization, creating friction. The newspaper said there was even speculation that Radojica intended to kill Nebojsa over past problems and because he had become a traitor to the organization.
Instead, Radojica wound up dead.

Just 11 days ago, another, more powerful, car bomb rocked Belgrade. Bosko Raicevic, a relative of Andrija Draskovic, was killed in the Dorcal district during an afternoon attack. Police have not announced suspects or a motive for the killing, but Draskovic was a very powerful Serbian mobster who is serving a nine-year prison sentence for killing a rival in 2000. He was convicted in 2011.

On April 19, a lone assassin gunned down Vujadin Pejanovic outside the Key Largo Café in New Belgrade shortly before midnight. Pejanovic was a member of the notoriously violent New Belgrade Clan, headed by fugitive mobster Dejan Stojanovic. Stojanovic is on the run and Interpol has issued a warrant for drug charges out of Brazil.

Pejanovic was shot once in the temple and several times in the torso in what police said was a fight over narcotics distribution.

And in May, a Novi Sad gunman opened fire at a pizza house and grazed the head of Nebojsa Tubica, who police said had dealings with Saric and Joca Amsterdam, according to the Kurir newspaper. More than a dozen shots were fired but nobody else was hurt and Tubica was treated and released.

http://www.reportingproject.net/occrp/inde...ko-saric-killed