Serbia Turns on Crime Gang Once Known for Official Ties

Members of special police units in Belgrade, Serbia. EPA-EFE/KOCA SULEJMANOVIC

"We will not allow extortion groups that think they are stronger than the state. Thanks to the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, we can say Serbia is a better and safer place," he told the media.

Veljko Belivuk, known as "Velja Nevolja" ("Velja the Trouble") was the leader of the Janjicari, (Janissaries) a notorious so-called football fan group formed in 2013 with connections not only to private security contractors but also to a number of state officials including a senior police adviser and the secretary-general of the government.

Beside Belivuk, police named only Marko Miljkovic, his closest associate, among the arrested.

Serbian tabloids have in recent days published several stories on Belivuk's alleged crimes. According to the investigative portal KRIK, the "Janjicari" have links to an equally notorious Montenegrin drug trafficking clan, the Kavac. Belivuk became a head of the group after the liquidation of Aleksandar Stanković in 2016.

He was in the spotlight in 2017 after being charged with participating in the murder of the karate player Vlastimir Milosevic, which took place in the middle of Belgrade. However, under unclear circumstances, due to a sudden lack of evidence, he was acquitted of charges.

The links between the Janjicari and Serbian officials have been documented numerous times by the Serbian media. BIRN reported on the group's connections with certain government members and the Gendarmerie elite police unit.

President's Aleksandar Vucic's own son, Danilo, has been photographed several times with different members of the Janjicari. Vucic has never responded to queries about his son's companions. He and other top...

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