Serbia is full of little Escobars and El Chapos

BELGRADE -- "Politika" cited a report on the narcotics market for 2018, which was recently presented, and which frequently refers to Serbian organized crime groups

Serbia is full of little Escobars and El Chapos

BELGRADE -- "Politika" cited a report on the narcotics market for 2018, which was recently presented, and which frequently refers to Serbian organized crime groups

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Ilutstracija: Depositphotos/ Couperfield

"Serbia is full of little Escobars" reads the headline of a Belgrade newspaper, which states that Serbia is increasingly involved in drug trafficking in the so-called Balkan Cartel, which is estimated to be on the rise by international police organizations.

The newspaper states that it has been confirmed by the Serbian Interior Ministry that over the past two years, more than 10 tons of drugs have been seized in the country, four tons last year, and this year more than six, making 2019 the record year in narcotics seizure since statistics are being kept.

It is added that those statistics did not include marijuana seized in "Jovanjica" - 650 kilograms ready for sale and almost additional four tons of raw drugs.

Darko Saric, aka Balkan El Chapo, and Radosav Cvijovic, whom many refer to as "Novi Sad Escobar", are cocaine's biggest drug dealers.

As for heroin, "Politika" states that the biggest seizure of this year in Serbia occurred in mid-November, when 77 kilograms of that dangerous drug, worth five million euros, were discovered and the suspected narcotics leader Mladen Novakovic Tocilo from the village of Americi near Mladenovac was arrested.

The newspaper reveals from the reports of European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) and Europol that in addition to traditionally the largest Colombian and Italian criminal groups, groups from Serbia and Albania are becoming increasingly important in the cocaine trade.

"It is emphasized that Serbian criminals cooperate well with their 'colleagues' from other countries of the former Yugoslavia, which is why they were also referred to as 'Balkan Cartel' by European police officers", Politika writes.

It is alleged that the Balkan Cartel is made up of criminal groups from the territory of the former Yugoslavia, and "the most represented are Serbs, Croats and Montenegrins, who cooperate well with each other, but also with their neighbors: Albanians, Bulgarians and Italians".

"Politika" reminds that unlike cocaine, which comes from Latin America, heroin comes from the east - mainly from Afghanistan, and to a lesser extent from Pakistan, Iran, eastern Turkey and Central Asian countries.

"The main heroin smuggling routes (to EU countries) run through Turkey, Bulgaria, Albania, then via Kosovo through Serbia", the newspaper writes, adding that when heroin arrives in Kosovo, drug cartels pack it in smaller quantities and then transport it by land.