Research of the weekly "Vreme"

In the new issue: The Balkan cartel in the service of the 'Ndrangheta

May 19, 2023, 07:07 p.m Jelena Zoric

Skilled bandits and robbers, contract killers, drug dealers, sailors and drug smugglers are part of the Balkan cartel, which has been managing the transportation of cocaine from South America to Europe for decades, as well as the further distribution of drugs. Above them is only the biggest mafia in the world - the Italian 'Ndrangheta, which is actually the real owner of more than 60 percent of the cocaine that is distributed from the jungles of Colombia, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia to all continents. Who is who in the Balkan Cartel and how are they connected to the 'Ndrangheta, but also to the motorcycle gang "Hell's Angels"

The Balkan Cartel is joined by the best in the worst business - crime. It is made up of ex-Pink Panther gold and jewel thieves and drug-dealing veterans who are chasing every drug enforcement agency in the world. This criminal organization is believed to be behind multi-ton shipments of cocaine that have arrived in Europe directly from Colombia, Brazil and Ecuador, or in transit through logistics infrastructure in West Africa.

The Balkan cartel is considered the elite of the underworld, and their phone books contain numbers of cocaine producers from the jungles of Latin America, numbers of sailors and customs officers in all ports of the world, police chiefs and ministers throughout the Balkans, and the most important numbers - mafia bosses from Calabria. Villains who, because of drugs and money, are ready to, as they state in some of their messages, "go after women and children", live luxuriously in public, are regular guests of the most expensive restaurants in Dedinje, Belgrade, and no one asks them anything until Europol do not open correspondence for secret communication for mobile phones - Sky ECC.

When, two years ago, Europol investigators saw that messages from Sky revealed the entire network and routes of cocaine smugglers, they created the "Balkan Cartel" Task Force and gathered countries across Europe and the world to effectively target the threat coming from Serbia. Action "Iza" was carried out on May 11, and members of the MUP of Serbia and their colleagues from Europol broke into thirty-five houses and apartments in Belgrade, Niš, Lazarevac, Zrenjanin and Subotica in just a few hours...

Read on full text by Jelena Zorić in the weekly "Vreme" from Thursday (May 18)

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Tags:

izi Calabria Criminal EUROPOL hell's angels The Balkan Cartel drug cartel Beograd the pink panther Serbia the drug cocaine MUP Latin America The 'Ndrangheta Sky E.C.C. mafia

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