BELGRADE: Serbian police said on Thursday they have arrested 13 people suspected of being leaders of the Balkan drugs cartel that has smuggled tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe.
The operation, carried out in cooperation with Europol and European Union’s judicial agency Eurojust, led to dismantling “biggest drugs trafficking criminal organisation from the Balkans”, an interior ministry statement said.
The arrested are members of an organised criminal group made up of several independent cells that functioned as a Balkan cartel and they are the biggest cocaine dealers from the Balkans, it said.
Among those arrested figure two organisers of the group while 11 others are suspected of being leaders of the cartel’s cells.
“It is believed that the cartel is behind multi-tonne shipments of cocaine that have arrived in Europe from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, but also via West Africa”, police official Ninoslav Cmolic said in the statement.
During the operation, carried out in several Serbian cities, police have searched more than 20 locations where large amounts of money and weapons were found.
At least seven tonnes of cocaine seized during 2020 in Aruba, Belgium and the Netherlands are linked to the drug lords arrested Thursday as well as previously held members of the cartel, Cmolic said.
Serbia lies on the so-called Balkans route used by criminals to smuggle drugs, weapons and people into western Europe.
Neighbouring Croatia in April charged eight people with trafficking cocaine worth more than 16 million euros ($17.5 million) to Europe.
The eight are believed to be part of the Croatian branch of the Balkan “cocaine ring” linked to former narcotics boss Darko Saric, who is imprisoned in Serbia, local media said. -AFP
