The beginnings of the "Yugo mafia" came with the large waves of
guest-workers from
Yugoslavia to
Northern Europe in the 1960s and 1970s. During this time Socialist Yugoslavia was emptying its prisons and flooding Western Europe with Yugoslav criminals, many of whom created organized criminal rings in
Germany,
Austria,
Denmark, and
Sweden. One of these newly freed criminals was
Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović, who in 1972 began organizing large heists and hijackings across Western Europe, accumulating a group of subordinates, wealth, and a feared reputation in the underworld. Those Yugoslavs that arrived first in New York and the first known notable people that made a name for themselves is Alexander Karalanović and
Vojislav Stanimirović, and later
Boško Radonjić became internationally known first because of The Vizcaya Museum Robbery Heist and all the media and arrest coverage World Wide in 1971 this put Mr Stan Yugo Mafia and The YACS Crime Group on the map but back in Europe Arkan moved to Stockholm in 1974 from where he organized five bank robberies and 12 armed robberies across
Sweden. In New York multiple heists that were so ahead of its time was happening all over New York. Arkan was at the helm of the gang until 1979, at which point he fled Sweden due to
Interpol Warrants. The YACS started pulling off lucrative Jewelry Heists and they opened the first known vault in NYC . Arkan's childhood friend
Dragan "Jokso" Joksović is believed to eventually have taken control of the Serb mafia in Sweden, broadening the gang's focus from robbery to cigarette smuggling and extortion. Although indicted multiple times for drug offenses and assault, he was never convicted. Owner of several upscale Stockholm restaurants he had close ties to celebrities and politicians in Sweden - eventually being murdered by hit-men on February 4, 1998. In the late 1990s disagreements over money, territory and leadership caused a degree of infighting within the Serb mafia in Scandinavia. Soon after Joksović's murder, the next boss
Ratko "Cobra" Đokić was shot 30 times and killed in the center of Stockholm in 2003. Đokić's son-in-law, Milan Ševo, then became the new head of the Serbian Brotherhood - being dubbed "Godfather of Stockholm". Ševo survived several assassination attempts and in 2005 left Stockholm for Belgrade, Serbia, from where he is believed to have continued control of the organization. Ševo is suspected by Swedish and Serbian authorities to be behind the infamous 2009
Stockholm Helicopter Heist worth 10 million euros. In 2005, the Danish government label the Serb mafia as having a "leading role in smuggling heroin into Denmark", surpassing the Albanians and Turks in the Copenhagen drug market. Besides heroin, the Serb mafia is active in trafficking large quantities of cocaine and marijuana through Sweden and Denmark. ==Popular culture==