The nightclub in Santos, Brazil, was practically a center where drug cartels recruited dozens of sailors from Montenegro and the region - some agreed because they wanted to make quick money, and some because they were told that this was their only option if they wanted to save their lives. ..
Research by "Vijesti" shows that few resisted that call, and that some of the others often ended up underground or behind bars.
Some, however, earned business empires in this way, which are synonymous with success in many cities of the former Yugoslavia...
The newspaper's source claims that most of them are under the scrutiny of international investigators and that, as he said, it is only a matter of time before they are arrested...
"Everything is bought here, including life... This club is quite remote and you need to get out of it and get to the ship. And in any case, I can always bring you safely back to the gate," said the head of the international drug cartel to a Montenegrin sailor who went out to party in a night club in Santos one long summer night.
Previously, the armed man asked him to allow them to pack the cocaine on the container ship that he used to sail to Brazil, making it clear to him that even while he and his colleague (names known to the "Vijesti" journalist) were getting off the ship, he knew where to wait for them.
That sailor remained "clean" despite a dangerous encounter with the head of an international cartel from the former Yugoslavia.
Research by "Vijesti" shows that many are not. A night bar with the same name as a Brazilian football club has been closed as part of an investigation into international cocaine smuggling.
Treading the path to the south
After the nineties and a series of murders attributed to the purges of the then State Security Administration (UDBA), a large number of younger guys from those teams went to the southern hemisphere in order to survive.
Like Dobroslav Gavrić, who first went to Croatia with a fake passport, then to Italy, and then to Cuba and Ecuador, in order to arrive in the Republic of South Africa in 2007, dozens of guys went to Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Panama .
They disappeared in droves, explains one of the interlocutors of "Vijesti".
"At that time, money bought a new identity and life, which made it possible to find a complete Yugoslav network and logistics in the south. After them, they just kept coming, mostly fugitives," said the sailor from the beginning of the story.
Following this information, "Vijesti" spoke with a member of the foreign security service, who told "Vijesti" who are the Montenegrins, as well as the citizens of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Slovenia, who for decades have been or are still in charge of dirty jobs.
Some of them have been in prison for years throughout Latin America, others have been arrested in the actions of international investigators and are threatened with long prison terms, individuals have been liquidated in mutual confrontations, but throughout the South there are still "safe havens" for the EX YU mafia...
"There was everything before 2005-2006. year, but then the real "profitable" stories begin. Montenegrin citizen (name known to the journalist), friend of the murdered head of the Skaljar clan, Jovan Vukotić, came and stayed in the south, more precisely in Brazil, a little over a decade and a half ago. He settled in Santos. In the beginning, he had problems with the local police because of his vices, but he quickly joined the local mafia and since then it has been a base for many who came from the area of the former Yugoslavia. Some left, while others stayed and did dirty work for criminals from the former Yugoslavia. "The Montenegrin stayed, determined the routes, made dirty deals, rented or bought houses and ships that were used to transport drugs from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru", said the interlocutor of "Vijesti".
He also explains how those who ran away from the law or ran for easy money had their way paved at the end of the last century and the beginning of this one.
"The south became the base of the old guard of the Yugoslav mafia. Apart from this sixty-year-old Montenegrin citizen arrested for smuggling large quantities of cocaine, an important link in making criminal deals, especially those with cocaine smuggling, in the late '90s was Zoran Jakšić, the leader of the America clan. He was arrested for the first time in 1998 in Peru, and in prison he strengthened his contacts and continued his work after his release. He has been in prison in Peru for eight years, but the bars have not stopped his work. This was also demonstrated after the cracking of several protected applications, which allowed us to gain insight into the almost complete network of the so-called of the Balkan cartel. Many guys from the former Yugoslavia came along the same paths that the old guard used to come to the south, I will remind you of Goran Nešić and his son Aleksandar, or of two guys from Sarajevo - David Cufaj born in Belgrade and Smail Šikaj, associates of Edin Gačanin Tito. Or the recently murdered Darko Geisler Nedeljković, who, as is suspected, committed several murders for the Montenegrin and Bosnian mafia. He was liquidated in Sao Paulo in front of his wife and child. He had a false identity in the name of Dejan Kovač. Before the murder, while Montenegro was looking for him, with a completely new identity, but old habits, he entered the port business with trucks - importing goods, importing containers into the port... He retired when it became dangerous, but not in time." said the interlocutor of "Vijesti".
They are everywhere
Explaining how the criminals knew who would be on which ship and who they should "chase" and offer him a dangerous job, he said that drug cartels are deeply infiltrated in various spheres of society, including shipping companies...
"That team in the south, as well as in their home countries, infiltrated various spheres of society with money, so even today they have an influence on many people who have to answer their every call, launder money for them, provide them with information, documents, set up someone who they don't need anymore or who got out of control, like the members of their outposts in Montenegro - the Kavački and Skaljar clans... We mustn't forget a very important link in that chain - people from the old service, of whom some have been arrested, or to immigration officers in world ports. These are all international ports open to traffic and immigration departments, the border police have their own stations and teams in all these ports. Given that these are fast container ships (maximum 24-36 hours in the port), the entire state system is subordinated to them because it is about billions worth of cargo and exports. Big companies like MSC and Maersk have deals with governments and have an advantage. Literally everything ends on the fly. That's how cartel mercenaries from the police, who were deployed in the ports, used to deliver the passports of new sailors and details of when the ship will leave (partenza, departure in Italian) to the mafia for 300 dollars. That's how much the fate of people once cost in the south, whose lives turned around in an instant. That's how various boys fell. "Some made millions, some became businessmen, some died... that's mostly how large consortia were created, like some in Montenegro," said the "Vijesti" interlocutor.
Since August, more than 30 tons of cocaine that was sailing to Europe have been seized
Since the beginning of August, American and European security services have seized more than 30 tons of cocaine, most of which was sailing to Europe or was ready for transport to the Old Continent, where clan cells would take it over in the ports of Antwerp in Belgium, Rotterdam in the Netherlands or in the Mediterranean, the ports of Valencia in Spain and Genoa and Gioia Tauro in Italy.
The interlocutor from the foreign security service said that during the recent actions, in which a significant number of members of the Zaliv clan were arrested, it was confirmed to them that several citizens of the former Yugoslavia were also part of that clan:
"Which are still in the territory of South America. They are the link with members of the Balkan drug cartel and the Albanian mafia and an important link in the transportation of cocaine to Europe. We have operationally discovered the identity of most of them, and we are currently working on locating them and depriving them of their freedom"...
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