Veselin Vukotić (53), a former boxer who devoted himself to business, can sometimes be seen in the better Novi Sad restaurants in the company of dangerous guys in leather jackets and glamorous girls. The presence of this member of the criminal underworld on the streets of the city is not something officials in Serbia would brag about.
This is no small achievement for someone who, after lengthy extradition negotiations conducted between Serbia and Belgium, has just begun serving a twenty-year prison sentence for a murder committed in a nightclub in Montenegro in 1997.
Vukotić spent only eight months in prison in Novi Sad, and then, in August 2010, he was released, without too much fanfare, for "humanitarian reasons", after, as the authorities claim, he survived a heart attack and heart surgery .
Some media have already speculated that his health condition was not the real reason for his release, and BIRN is now able to confirm that Vukotić agreed to cooperate and share with the police sensitive information about Montenegrin gangsters involved in illegal activities that include money laundering and cigarette smuggling and drugs.
Several high-ranking sources in the police and judiciary have confirmed that Vukotić is cooperating with investigators in Serbia who are trying to find evidence that incriminates key Montenegrin officials and links them to organized crime circles.
Vukotić, also known as Vesko, comes from Montenegro, where in the eighties and nineties he was in close contact with the heads of criminal organizations and leading people in the underground.
Ready to talk
"Vukotić contacted us before his release from prison in Belgium and explained to us that in case he is extradited to Montenegro, he will not live there for more than a few days.
He allegedly broke up with his former partners, and was ready to offer us useful information in return," a senior Serbian official from the Ministry of Justice, who requested to remain anonymous, told BIRN.
"He knows a lot about Montenegrin mobsters and is ready to talk."
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