Serbia arrests 13 suspected cocaine drug lords

BELGRADE: Serbian police said on Thursday they have arrested 13 people suspected of being leaders of the Balkan drugs cartel that has smuggled tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe.

The operation, carried out in cooperation with Europol and European Union´s judicial agency Eurojust, led to dismantling “biggest drugs trafficking criminal organisation from the Balkans”, an interior ministry statement said.

The arrested are members of an organised criminal group made up of several independent cells that functioned as a Balkan cartel and they are the biggest cocaine dealers from the Balkans, it said.

Among those arrested figure two organisers of the group while 11 others are suspected of being leaders of the cartel´s cells. “It is believed that the cartel is behind multi-tonne shipments of cocaine that have arrived in Europe from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, but also via West Africa”, police official Ninoslav Cmolic said in the statement.