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

[Magda Hassan]

I'm putting this here for the moment to see how it pans out. The mention of 'Serbian' body guards below is intriguing and possibly ties in with the Croatian and Hungarian hired mercenaries involved with the unsuccessful assassination attempt on the Catholic priest in Santa Cruz and planned assassination of Morales.

Bolivia: arrest of "big fish" in Santa Cruz cocaine mafia leaves trail of intrigue
Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 08/12/2011 - 21:42.
The arrest last month of Robin Rosales Agreda, an accused narco-trafficker considered the "big fish" (pez gordo) of Bolivia's cocaine trade, has left a trail of intrigue in its wake. Rosales was apprehended by National Police on July 14 in the community of El Tuná de San Matías, Santa Cruz department. Already sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison in Bolivia, he is also wanted by Brazilian authorities. He is said to be boss of the Rosales family, one of the most powerful in the oligarchy of Santa Cruz, a right-wing opposition stronghold. Authorities hope his arrest will be a final blow to what is believed to be an extensive criminal machine in the region. Five days after Rosales' arrest, the family's attorney, Denver Pedraza, was shot at twelve times outside the Ministry of Justice building in Santa Cruz. He was hit five times, and only survived because a bullet hit his cell phone in his breast pocket. The National Police Special Anti-Crime Struggle Force (FELCC) has opened an investigation into the attempted slaying, and the Rosales family's network of informants and collaborators.

In 2008, national authorities seized about $7 million of the family's assets, including 12 properties, satellite equipment, two aircraft, and a fleet of trucks and luxury vehicles. But a judge in Santa Cruz ordered everything returned. Authorities say the Rosales family has forged an alliance with Brazil's leading crime syndicate, the First Capital Command (Primer Comando CapitalPCC), to smuggle Bolivian cocaine to Brazilian markets. The most renowned member of the family is William Rosales Suárez , who was kidnapped in May 2010, in a violent ambush that left six of his bodyguards dead, including two Serbians. (InSight Crime, Aug. 11; Opinión.com, Cochabamba, July 19; Opinión.com, July 14)

Source

[Jan Klimkowski]

Magda - good find.

More here to ponder:

Bolivia: Drug Cartels Using The Serbian Company Combat Team Security Solutions'

(Photo which won't display)
Bojan Bakula, one of the deceased Serbians. From the CTSS website.

Serb Mercenaries See Prospects in Latin AmericaVesna Peric Zimonjic

May 26, 2010

For most Serbs, Latin America is a distant continent held in regard by the older generation as a part of the non-aligned movement.

But when three Serb bodyguards of alleged narcotics boss William Rosales Suarez were killed in Bolivia, near the eastern town of Santa Cruz earlier this month, it put Latin America into the spotlight.

Sasa Turcinovic, 40, Predrag Cankovic, 38, and Bojan Bakula, 29, arrived in Bolivia on May 13 only to be killed the next day along with three locals deployed to protect Suarez's convoy of vehicles. Suarez was kidnapped and is still missing.

For days Serbian media was teeming with items on the three. It turned out that Bakula and Turcinovic were the owners of a security agency called Combat Team Security Solution, based in Ruma, 50 km west of Belgrade.

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.

"As the wars ended, many veterans were left jobless with the only skills they had related to combat," security analyst Zoran Dragisic told IPS.

"Besides, there are many young people who seek adventure and believe the security line of work is challenging enough," Dragisic said. "There are also those on the borderline between legal and illegal activities that are daring enough and ready to cross the line and work for whoever offers more."

Cankovic was in the Bosnian Serb army taking part in operations in eastern Bosnia, while Bakula was a professional soldier in Serbian army who left two-and-a-half years ago to establish the security agency in his native town of Ruma.

The unusual fatal incident in a distant country drew the attention of the broader public to murky "protection and safety agencies", established mostly by veterans of the wars of the 1990s.

Most of their members sell their skills as bodyguards or provide armed protection both at home and abroad, with activities often bordering or even linked to organised crime as the two were intermingled in the 1990s, particularly in Serbia.

Engagements abroad, said to bring in thousands of dollars in monthly wages, may range from protection of oil fields in Iraq to those involved in the drug business in Latin America.

It was discovered only recently that Latin America is a haven for many Serbian criminals who are engaged in the illegal drugs trade or who are fugitives from the law.

Last October, 2.7 tonnes of cocaine were seized on a ship whose destination was Europe, chartered by Serbian criminals in Montevideo, Uruguay. Apart from seven men arrested at the time, some 500 were detained later on in Serbia, in an operation dubbed Balkan Warrior'.

It is widely believed that several members of the Zemun Klan, accused of participating in Djindjic's killing, have found safe haven in a Latin American nation.

Serbia remains the only country in the region that has no regulation on protection and security agencies, and the recent event in Bolivia prompted interior minister Dacic to act swiftly.

"The ministry of interior will insist on being included in the process of creating the law on agencies, on licensing and training of interested individuals," Dacic told reporters.

According to official statistics of the Serbian Business Registers Agency, there are almost 600 small and medium protection, security and detective agencies in the country. It is estimated that they employ some 40,000 people, meaning they are under arms. Serbia now has only a small professional army of 36,000, where not everyone is allowed to carry arms and 47,000 strong police that do carry arms.

"It is extremely important who you give the arms to; it is possible that a large private army can be created otherwise, and if it involves people with criminal backgrounds, this can represent a danger for the state," Interior Minister Ivica Dacic explained.

Dacic refused to either confirm or deny that he is to officially visit several Latin American countries in June.

"What is bad for us [Serbia] is the fact that we have no cooperation agreements or memoranda on police cooperation with those nations; it goes very slowly and along the side routes," Dacic said.

"There are many members of Serbian organised crime groups who reside in Latin America, mostly for the illegal trade in cocaine. We know where our criminals mostly smuggle from Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay," Dacic added.

But for those with better knowledge of organised crime in Serbia, the events in Bolivia and in Uruguay came as no surprise.

A police source, insisting on anonymity, told IPS that "the first connections between Colombian narco-cartels and Serbian organised crime date back to early 1990s. That is when the links between Pablo Escobar and Radojica Nikcevic were made, and their heirs had only to continue; their inside showdowns, in both groups, are going on until today."

Colombian drug lord Escobar was killed by police in 1993, while Nikcevic was gunned down by unknown assailants in Belgrade in the same year.

There's a comment at the site as follows, suggesting that the "security company" is a bit of a joke:

Man, I don't like to read about this stuff, but this is the reality of our industry. The money these drug cartels are offering is just too much of a draw to some of these unscrupulous companies operating out there. Obviously Combat Team Security Solutions could care less if they are protecting a scum bag narco boss. For that, I put them right up there with the Los Zetas or the Somali pirates.

Now I do not want to fall into the trap of labeling all Serbian's as criminal with this post, because they are not. There are plenty of Serbian contractors out there who are doing good things and it is companies like this that give them a bad name. Also, I have a lot of Serbian readers and fans of the blog, and I know this kind of thing probably makes them wince.

Finally, if you want a good chuckle, check out the website below and the youtube videos this company produced. I am still trying to figure out why anyone would pay for their services other than to get a good laugh. -Matt

[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:

[Jan Klimkowski]

More on the Bolivian events:

Policeman arrested over Bolivia murders

21 May 2010

A Bolivian policeman has been arrested under suspicion that he was involved in the recent drug-related murders in that country.

Three Serbian citizens are believed to have been among the six victims. Serbian police (MUP) on Thursday confirmed the identities of two Serbians.

Local media in La Paz say that other active and former police officers are also suspected of involvement in the killings.

The investigation so far has shown that drug lord William Rosales Suarez and his bodyguards were stopped at a fake police checkpoint, where he was kidnapped, while his entourage was tied up, tortured and murdered.

The three Serbs, according to the local media, headed a team of elite bodyguards.

In Belgrade, Interior Minister Ivica Da?i? said on Thursday that two of them have been positively identified as Saša Tur?inovi? and Bojan Bakula, while passport and ID photocopies and fingerprints sent for Predrag ?ankovi?, a third suspected victim, did not match.

The motive for the kidnapping and murders is believed to have been a million dollar reward offered by Bolivian narco-cartels for the capture of Suarez. However, local police are also looking into the possibility that the massacre was related to a showdown between international cartels active in Bolivia.

Bolivia is the world's third-largest producer of coca leaves, after Colombia and Peru, and also one of the leading producers of cannabis.