Serbia Sentences Convicted Drugs Baron Saric for Money Laundering

In a first-instance verdict that can be appealed, a Serbian court on Friday sentenced a convicted drugs smuggler, Darko Saric, to nine years in prison for laundering at least 20 million euros in the country.

Besides Saric, 12 more members of his group were sentenced to prison, two were acquitted and another two had their charges dismissed by the court. A final group member will face proceedings at a separate time, with his trial being postponed due to health problems.

According to the indictment, in 2009 Saric and 18 others began buying up companies, land and real estate in Serbia, mainly in agriculture and tourism in the northern province of Vojvodina.

Saric tasked associates, some of them lawyers, with finding different people to make deposits into bank accounts of up to 15,000 euros - the limit under which the authorities or the bank would not check the origin. That money would then be used to buy up companies, land and real estate in Serbia.

Saric's co-accused did not deny making the purchases but said the purpose was not to launder money.

The trial began in 2011 but only really drew attention after Saric surrendered to the authorities in 2014. Saric said he had earned millions from the sale of the Serbian newsstand network Stampa to German Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, WAZ, and had entrusted the proceeds to a friend.

The Serbian state disagreed and seized his property in Serbia - flats, company shares and hotels. The authorities recently made four hotels available to people returning from abroad pending COVID-19 tests, and to accommodate health workers.

Saric, 50, who was born in Montenegro when it was part of federal Yugoslavia but has Serbian citizenship, has been in custody since his surrender in 2014.

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