Thirteen suspected drug lords, suspected of being responsible for the Balkan Cartel that shipped numerous shipments of cocaine from South America to Europe, were arrested on Thursday (May 11th) in Serbia, police said.
This operation, carried out through Serbia in cooperation with the European agencies Europol and Eurojust, allowed the dismantling of "the main criminal organization of drug trafficking in the Balkans," according to a statement from the Ministry of the Interior. The arrested people, two leaders and eleven leaders of the cartel's gangs, are among the main drug traffickers in the Balkans, according to the ministry.
At least seven tons of cocaine
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It is believed that the cartel is responsible for shipping multiple shipments of cocaine to Europe from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, but also from West Africa," police officer Ninoslav Cmolic said in the statement. The operation took place in several cities in Serbia and about twenty places where large sums of money and weapons could be seized, according to the police.
The alleged drug lords are involved in trafficking at least seven tons of cocaine seized in 2020 on the Dutch island of Aruba, Belgium and the Netherlands, the police officer said. Serbia is part of the so-called Balkan route used by criminal groups to smuggle drugs, arms and people to Western Europe.
In neighbouring Croatia, eight people were charged in April with trafficking cocaine from South America worth sixteen million euros to several European countries. Croatian media reported that they were suspected of being part of the Croatian branch of the "cocaine network" linked to former drug trafficker Darko Saric, who is in prison in Serbia.
