POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: Organised Crime Gang Hunted Down

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Nov 5 2002 (IPS) - The Serbian police have cracked down on a gang engaged in organised crime continuing from the days of former President Slobodan Milosevic.

The police broke a ring of criminals "who intended to bring chaos back into the country," Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic told media representatives. More than 100 members of the gang suspected of involvement in organised crime were arrested.

Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic said the aim of the suspects was to ensure "a weak administration that would not fight organised crime."

The arrests followed a six-month long operation, the first carried out in cooperation with Interpol in more than a decade. Many of the arrested had false Western European passports.

The operation involved a protected witness who gave evidence about the organised crime in exchange for being let off, police sources say. The witness and his family will remain in protective custody and leave the country once the trials begin.

Among those arrested are the suspects in the sensational murder of police general Bosko Buha earlier this year. They are believed to have carried out other such killings.

Buha was killed shortly after he gave an interview to a local weekly in which he named five criminal groups in Serbia and described their operations in detail. Buha said police action against these groups was imminent.

Buha’s interview was based on a police report ‘Criminal Groups and Individuals Dealing with Organised Crime’ that named more than 500 people involved in organised crime. It was the first such investigation in Serbia in decades.

The suspects were arrested in the Buha murder case. Investigations later revealed their involvement in organised crime. In the past two years they gradually moved from smuggling to human trafficking, kidnappings and assassinations.

One of the suspects, Zeljko Maksimovic (39) fled before the police action. He is reported to be in Cyprus, officials say.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Mihajlovic said. "We are now taking decisive steps in uprooting the leftovers of the previous regime to make this country safe again."

The police found an arms cache including automatic rifles and rocket launchers, and more than 200,000 dollars in cash from one of the hideouts raided.

The group planned to assassinate or abduct leading Serbian politicians like Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and his family, federal Vice Prime Minister Miroljub Labus, Parliament Speaker Cedomir Jovanovic, and opposition leader Vojislav Seselj, Mihajlovic said.

Serbia is the bigger sister of tiny Montenegro in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). It lived through wars, isolation and a strict United Nations embargo under Milosevic in the 90s. In that decade it also became an area where organised crime flourished due to smuggling and sanctions-breaching operations.

Petrol, cigarettes, drugs and consumer goods were smuggled in by criminals who shared their millions of dollars of profit with top police, customs and government officials. Milosevic’s son Marko who was also suspected in organised crime fled the country in October 2000 when his father fell from power.

Fights among gangsters were common in the Milosevic era. Some well known underworld figures were killed in such rivalry. So were some senior police officials and managers of petrol companies involved with the criminals. The killers were never found.

"The new regime that came into power after Milosevic inherited a wasps nest," says Marko Nicovic, who was chief of Belgrade police in the 80s. "The roots of organised crime are deep and many top gangsters tried to establish proper business after 2000."

But new authorities bent on reform took a tougher stand from 2000. Strict regulations unknown in Milosevic’s days were enforced. These included European-style laws on customs, taxes and profit taxation. The end of sanctions also helped curb smuggling.

POLITICS-YUGOSLAVIA: Organised Crime Gang Hunted Down

By Vesna Peric Zimonjic Reprint | | Print |

Vesna Peric Zimonjic

BELGRADE, Nov 5 2002 (IPS) - The Serbian police have cracked down on a gang engaged in organised crime continuing from the days of former President Slobodan Milosevic.
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