1970s and 1980s The 1960s saw the emergence of the "Balkan Express" heroin smuggling network that transported heroin from the "
Golden Crescent" nations of Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan to Western Europe via Turkey and the Balkans. The "Balkan Express" cut across all of the lines imposed by the Cold War as the network crossed from Turkey (a NATO member) into either Bulgaria (a member of the Warsaw Pact) or Greece (also a NATO member) into Yugoslavia (neutral in the Cold War) and ended either in Italy (a NATO member) or Austria (also neutral in the Cold War). Yugoslavia was a key point in the "Balkan Express" and several Serbian criminal clans played an important role in the "Balkan Express". By the 1970s-1980s, the Serbian mafia was making about $7 billion US per annum from smuggling heroin into Western Europe, which made the Serbian mafia into one of the most powerful organised crime groups in Europe, whose activities were tolerated by the Yugoslav authorities in exchange for a cut of the profits. For all these reasons, organised crime came to play an institutionalised role in Communist Yugoslavia analogous to the role played by the Mafia in Sicily, and it was quite common for state officials to have close ties with gangsters. During this period, the Serbian Mafia as the various clans took to referring to themselves forged an alliance with the Sicilian Mafia who purchased the heroin from the Serb clans and smuggled the heroin onward to the United States and other nations in the New World. Yugoslavia was especially attractive for drug smuggling for a number of reasons. Yugoslavia was neutral in the Cold War and was courted by both the Eastern and Western blocs of states, which allowed Yugoslavia to strike favorable deals with both sides. Marshal
Josip Broz Tito was one of the leaders of the Non-Aligned bloc of nations, and it was very common for university students from non-aligned Third World nations to study for their degrees in Yugoslavia, which ensured that many Yugoslavs knew people from the Third World first-hand. Furthermore, Yugoslavia was not a closed country, and millions of tourists came from aboard every year to enjoy the sunny Adriatic coast while Yugoslavs were allowed visa-free travel to the West. Starting in the 1960s, Yugoslavs were permitted to go to Western Europe, mostly West Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden, to work as "guest workers". By 1971, about 4% of the Yugoslav population had left to work in Western Europe as "guest workers" whose remittendnces to their families back in Yugoslavia became an important source of income.
Ljubomir Magaš, aka Ljuba Zemunac, was known as the "
Godfather" of the Serbian mafia during the 1970s and 1980s. He and his gang operated in
Germany and
Italy during this time. The drug that was smuggled was cocaine from
Colombia He worked for "Duja" Bećirović as an
underboss and later lived in Bulgaria where he successfully smuggled drugs until his arrest in 2002. Upon returning to Serbia, he took over companies by force, utilizing the Surčin clan,
Željko "Arkan" Ražnatović was a successful bank robber in
Western Europe in the 1970s. He had convictions and warrants in
Belgium, the
Netherlands,
Sweden,
Germany,
Austria,
Switzerland and
Italy. However, he managed to escape from several prisons and then made connections with several known criminals from Yugoslavia during his time there. In the 1980s he returned to
Serbia where he became involved with illegal businesses and led the
Red Star Belgrade supporters' group "
Delije Sever" ("Ultras").
1990s The real breakthrough for
criminal organizations in
Serbia occurred in the early 1990s, when the
Yugoslav Wars erupted in first Croatia and then Bosnia. The
Serbs,
Croats and
Bosniaks fought over territory in
Croatia and
Bosnia and Herzegovina.
International sanctions were imposed on
Serbia starting in May 1992 and Serbia became economically isolated. This prompted the breakthrough for
criminal organizations. Desperate for money, many former soldiers and youngsters turned to a life of crime. In 1992, members of the "Peca" gang were arrested in a massive police-operation. One of the gang's members was Dušan Spasojević, who later became the head of the Zemun clan. A young mobster from the Belgrade suburb of
Voždovac, Aleksandar "Knele" Knežević, was murdered in October of that year, prompting a brief, but violent Gang War in Belgrade. After Milošević's fall from power, Subotić maintained connections with Montenegrin President
Milo Đukanović, who granted him political favours. From 1994 to 2000, illegal cigarette smuggling in
Italy was operated by the Serbian mafia in coordination with the Italian organized crime groups. Serb and Montenegrin soldiers who had returned from the front-lines of the Yugoslav wars found the only way to make a profit was by turning to a life of crime. The most common crimes were assassinations, kidnappings, drug and cigarette trafficking, robberies, money laundering, racketeering and illegal software production.
2000s On 15 January 2000, Arkan was assassinated in the lobby of the
InterContinental Hotel in Belgrade.
Slobodan Milošević was dethroned in the October 2000
Bulldozer Revolution. However, a bloody feud soon emerged among the different criminal "clans" of Belgrade. The feud grew into an open war in which many of the key Mafia bosses were assassinated. In 2000, some €841,000,000 was made in illegal profits in Serbia. Milan Sarajlić, the Deputy State Prosecutor of Serbia was arrested that day and later confessed to being on the payroll of the Zemun clan. In November 2003, 140 kilograms of marijuana were seized in Belgrade and 4 people were arrested. The Red Berets were dissolved on 23 March 2003. In 2006, it was revealed that
Dušan Spasojević, leader of the Zemun clan, was connected to
Serbian Radical leader
Vojislav Šešelj, to whom he had allegedly given information about high-profile murders carried out in Serbia, which Šešelj wrote about. In January 2009, Serbian Interior Minister
Ivica Dačić estimated that between 30 and 40 serious organized crime groups were operating in Serbia. The figures provided by Dačić did not include smaller criminal groups but more organized ones that were involved in drug and arms trafficking, human trafficking, murder and protection rackets. In September 2009, 22 members of the Elez group were arrested by the Serbian police, dubbed the most dangerous gang in Western Balkans. The leader, Darko Elez, was captured with five other members in Serbia. 13 others were captured in Bosnia, including three police officers.) of cocaine shipment from
Uruguay on 17 October 2009, the BIA and American DEA made the joint operation. The Interior Ministry organized the Morava-operation that would focus on drug trafficking to young people in the primary and secondary schools, clubs and cafes and would encompass 2,000 police officers searching the whole country. In November 2009,
Argentine police arrested five Serbian drug couriers and seized their 492 kilograms of cocaine in
Buenos Aires, The routes of the drugs were from
Uruguay and
Argentina via Central alt.
South Africa to Northern Italy alt.
Turkey to
Montenegro. A courier package of 5 kilos cocaine was intercepted from Paraguay, 4 Serbs from Belgrade were arrested. 21 kilos of heroin ($1,5-million) were found in a Belgrade flat rented by a Montenegrin national. The drugs were brought from
Turkey.
2010s In January 2010, a lot illegally owned by the Zemun clan was seized at Šilerova Street,
Zemun, Belgrade, the clan's headquarters. and
Goran Soković. On 10 February 2010, Serbian top officials said serious death threats from the narco-mafia have been directed against President Boris Tadić, Deputy Prime minister and Interior minister Ivica Dačić, Special prosecutor for organized crime Miljko Radisavljević, and other top government officials. On 19 February 2010, Interior Minister Dačić said more than 50 suspects were arrested today in an ongoing operation aimed against financial crime and money laundering conducted in
Valjevo,
Novi Sad,
Belgrade,
Šabac,
Sremska Mitrovica,
Čačak and
Sombor. In March 2010,
Stanko "Cane" Subotić, head of the so-called "Tobacco mafia", accused
Nebojša Medojević, the
Montenegrin party leader of
Movement for Change of having organized a manhunt for him. Medojević had claimed that Cane and
Darko Šarić had been hiding in a
Montenegrin police villa in
Žabljak, while Cane said in an interview that he was in
Geneva,
Switzerland. On 19 March, Boris Tadić vowed all-out war on the Serbian mafia, in particular drug trafficking that is considered the biggest threat in society. He claimed to have evidence that Serbian cartels have attempted to penetrate state institutions to destabilise the government. "The latest property seizures prove that those groups have laundered narco money by investing not only into their personal houses and land but also in tourism, factories and distribution of the press", Tadić said. On 28 March 2010, two Bosniaks from
Novi Pazar, Sandžak were arrested at
Zagreb Airport with at least 1.7 kilograms of cocaine for the Serbian drug market. The pure cocaine came from
Lima, Peru where they had spent the month traveling from Belgrade. The drugs were worth an estimated €70,000 on the streets of Croatia. In April 2010, it was concluded that Šarić's gang had planned an operation against Serbian officials, including the president.
Encrypted messages in local newspapers were deciphered by investigators and after long surveillance of the clan it was concluded that several hitmen were to kill Serbian officials of the MUP, BIA and state officials in a synchronized and highly well-coordinated way. The Šarić clan wants to liquidate people that are in their way, after the Balkan Warrior Operation that heavily decreased crime in Serbia and Montenegro. On 14 May 2010, three Serbs who worked security for one of Bolivia's top drug lords were killed in a shootout with rival crime groups; the drug lord was kidnapped. Dačić submitted the work report for 2009; the police had uncovered 7 OC groups and arrested 86 people. He said that by the end of 2009 there were 27 registered OC groups active, with each group having more than 200 members. There is/was an ongoing investigation against Zemun clan members involved in assassinations who claim
Šešelj ordered the assassination of
Tomislav Nikolić. In 2010 it was revealed that the
Šarić gang had, from 2008 to 2009, ousted the
'Ndrangheta from the drug market. With the emergence of the gang on Italian soil, the gang offered better quality cocaine for a lower price, effectively gaining the market from 2007 to 2009, trafficking cocaine from South America. Operation Balkan Warrior was successful in Italy, with over 80 people arrested. Two networks were among the arrested, one Italian, with members from Milan and other northern Italian towns, and the other, a Serbian network, with members from Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia. The Serbian network has operatives all over Europe and South America. The Principi Group is the mafia organization in Serbia that is most closely linked to the Serbian state. After the arrest of their leader and suspected multiple murderer
Veljko Belivuk in 2019, he said in a court hearing that he had done "dirty work" for the Serbian government. In 2022, criminal proceedings against the alleged mafia boss Veljko Belivuk and 31 co-defendants began in a court in Belgrade. The leader is charged with five counts of murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking and illegal possession of weapons. He said he worked through intermediaries for President
Aleksandar Vučić. In 2011, Dr Gilly McKenzie, an Interpol Organized Crime Unit expert, compiled a "White Book" containing 52 criminal organizations of Serbia, none of which had been terminated by the year's end. In the same year, it was concluded that the Protection rackets in port cities on the Black Sea were run by Serbian, Russian and Ukrainian criminals. ==Groups==