Bolivia: arrest of "big fish" in Santa Cruz cocaine mafia leaves trail of intrigue

[Jan Klimkowski]

OK.

Turcinovic was once a member of the Red Berets, the notorious special Serbian police unit in the 90s which carried out atrocities during the wars with neighbouring Croatia and Bosnia.

It was disbanded after its members, also deeply involved in illegal drug trade within the group known as the "Zemun Klan", carried out the assassination of Serbian prime minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003.

This links back to Milorad Ulemek.

OK - Milorad Ulemek was a member of Arkan's Tigers.

Arkan's Tigers were primarily criminal paramilitary thugs used by Milosevic in black or terror operations. Ulemak allegedly commanded the "Super Tigrovi" (Super Tigers) special unit which operated in eastern Slavonia.

In 1996, Ulemek is belived to have joined the Special Operations Unit known as the JSO, or the Frenkies, or the Red Berets (Crvene beretke), which was an elite special unit of the Serbian Service of State Security. In 1999 he became the leader of the "Red Berets",[4] and became the official commander of "JSO SDB Serbia" in April 2001.


Ulemek is also allegedly a member of the Zemun Clan.

The Zemun Clan is one of the Belgrade clans of the Serbian Mafia. The name is based on the base of the clan i.e. Zemun, a municipality of Belgrade.

In 1992, the gang of "Peca" was arrested, one of the members was Dušan Spasojević, the later head of Zemun clan.[1]

In September 2001, 700 kilos of heroin was found in a bank vault rented by the BIA in central Belgrade. The illegal safekeeping was never explained nor brought up.[2] The Zemun gang had "special training courses" with the BIA, lending them information on Kosovo Albanian terrorists.

According to wiki, Ulemek is currently in prison for his role in two political assassination. However, he was out and about in 2002-3 when Breivik claims to have met him in Monrovia, Liberia:

The assassination of Ivan StambolicIvan Stambolic, former President of Serbia, was kidnapped in August 2000 while out jogging, executed and his body concealed in woodlands. Slobaodan Milosevic was believed to consider Stambolic, his former mentor, a threat to his future political authority. In July 2005 Milorad Ulemek was found guilty of his murder and sentenced to 40 years imprisonment. The sentence also took account of Ulemek's role in the attempted killing of another threat to Milosevic, Vuk Draskovic.[5]

[edit] The assassination of Zoran Djindjic Djindjic, Serbia's first democratically elected leader after the toppling of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's regime in October 2000, was shot dead outside the Serbian government building on March 12, 2003. Several members of the Red Berets and the criminal group known as the Zemun clan were also convicted of his murder.[2]

The Red Berets were used during Milosevic's rule for special operations in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, as well as for the elimination of Milosevic's political opponents.[2]

Djindjic's assassination was described by Presiding Judge Nata Mesarovic as "a political murder, a criminal act aimed against the state", in which police officers and the Mafia had joined hands to kill Djindjic and gain political power.[2]

Ulemek's deputy in the Red Berets, Zvezdan Jovanovic, was convicted of shooting Djindjic.[2]

The Djindjic murder trial was the first organised crime trial in Serbia. There were threats to the trial chamber, witness intimidation and the murder of a witness. The first trial chamber president, Marko Kljajevic, left the process in August 2005. One of the most controversial moments of the process was Ulemek's surrender in May 2004, claiming he had been hiding in his house for nearly 14 months.[2]

Ulemek potentially links to Far West and Breivik. See posts #233 ff here.

I am categorically NOT suggesting that these events in Bolivia had any direct connection to Breivik.

However, that a Serbian security company with potential links to Far West is involved in providing services to international narcotics traffickers does not surprize me in the least. :mexican: