Court sends 20 members of "Traffic Mafia" to prison

Court sends 20 members of "Traffic Mafia" to prison

BELGRADE -- The Special Court in Belgrade on Wednesday sentenced 20 members of the so-called "Traffic Mafia" to between five months and 7.5 years in prison.

They were accused and found guilty of causing "huge losses to insurance providers by defrauding them with false insurance claims."

Slobodan Knezic, indicted as the criminal group's organizer, was given a concurrent sentence of seven years and six months in prison.

The accused are also to pay the money back to insurance companies with interest.

The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime issued an indictment against a total of 24 people, whose dealings were exposed thanks to a police agent who infiltrated the group, in December 2006.

The accused were charged with paying police officers bribes of EUR 500 to 1,000 to prepare falsified traffic accident reports and using these to claim money from insurance companies, causing them losses of several hundred thousand euros.