Organized crime groups from the Balkans also have connections in Venezuela, as evidenced by cocaine seizures, arrests, and court cases that have been completed or are still ongoing.
These groups have been identified by international organizations, such as EUROPOL and INTERPOL, as key to the smuggling of cocaine from Latin American countries to Europe.
Venezuela, as a transit country for cocaine smuggling, came into the world's spotlight after United States (US) forces arrested the disputed Venezuelan leader, Nicolas Maduro, in early January.
He will stand trial in the United States on charges that he oversaw a cocaine trafficking network that collaborated with violent groups, including Mexico's Sinaloa and Zetas cartels, Colombia's leftist FARK rebels and Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang. Maduro pleaded not guilty at a January 5 hearing in a New York court.
What is the importance of Venezuela for criminal groups from the Balkans?
As Saša Đorđević, from the Global Initiative to Combat Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), points out to Radio Free Europe, Venezuela is important for cocaine flows, which also include criminal networks from the Western Balkans, because it is "a strategic exit corridor from Latin America to the Atlantic."
"And then mostly cocaine from that part goes directly to Europe or comes to Europe via West Africa," explains Đorđević.
For criminal groups from the Balkans, Venezuela, he said, is an important, but not the primary destination for cocaine smuggling from Latin America to Europe. In that sense, Colombia and Brazil are far more important, and in recent years, Ecuador.
The arrest of Maduro and the US action directed against criminal groups involved in cocaine smuggling, according to Đorđević, will not have much impact on the groups, whose members originate from the Balkan countries.
"Given that these groups have always been flexible, my assumption is that those groups that used Venezuela will find alternative routes in these countries, where, in my opinion, there are much more significant strongholds," says Đorđević.
Who are the main players?
The connection of criminal groups from the Balkans to Venezuela was exposed by the seizure of cocaine off the coast of Aruba, near Venezuela, in February 2020.
Then the Dutch navy intercepted the ship "Aressa", which had previously docked in the Venezuelan port of Guarano. Five tons of cocaine were seized on board.
The operation resulted in the arrest of 11 Montenegrin citizens who were members of the ship's crew. As the Montenegrin Police Directorate announced at the time, the seizure of cocaine in Aruba was the result of cooperation between Montenegro, Great Britain, Serbia and the Netherlands.
Before a court in Aruba, the arrested Montenegrin citizens were sentenced in March 2021 to sentences ranging from nine to 15 years in prison.
EUROPOL has brought Serbian citizen Miroslav Starčević, arrested in May 2023 with 12 other individuals, in connection with the cocaine seized in Aruba. They are charged by Serbian authorities with international drug trafficking.
As the Higher Court in Belgrade confirmed to RFE/RL, the court proceedings against the group are in the main trial phase.
Serbian police have identified Starčević as the leader of "the largest criminal drug trafficking organization in the Balkans," which was uncovered with the help of EUROPOL.
Serbian police believe that the cartel, led by Starčević, is "behind multi-ton shipments of cocaine that arrived in Europe from Colombia, Brazil, Ecuador, but also via West Africa."
Starčević's group is linked in reports by the Global Initiative to Combat Transnational Crime to the Kavač criminal clan, originating from Montenegro.
The Kavački and Škaljar clans originated in Montenegro. They are two warring criminal clans, in whose conflicts more than 60 people have lost their lives since 2014.
No response from the police of Montenegro and Serbia
It is not known whether and to what extent organized crime groups, whose members originate from Serbia and Montenegro, are still involved in cocaine smuggling linked to Venezuela.
These questions have not been answered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia or Montenegro by the time the text was written.
EUROPOL briefly stated to RFE/RL that the organization does not have direct cooperation with Venezuela, so they receive data on the involvement of organized crime groups from the Balkans indirectly, from the police forces of those countries.
Organized crime groups, whose members originate from the Western Balkan countries, have been identified in reports by international agencies such as EUROPOL and INTERPOL as key to cocaine smuggling from Latin America to primarily Western European countries.
This position, as stated in reports by the Global Initiative to Combat Transnational Organized Crime, was built over decades, primarily through direct connections in countries that produce and distribute cocaine.
What makes Venezuela special?
What makes Venezuela interesting, says Saša Đorđević from the Global Initiative, is that both sea and air transport are used to transport cocaine from that country.
"These are smaller aircraft for which control and monitoring are much less than for commercial flights," says Đorđević.
Cocaine is not produced in Venezuela. However, reports by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) identify Venezuela as one of the key transit countries, from which cocaine, produced mainly in neighboring Colombia, is further distributed to the United States and Europe.
The findings of the latest edition of the Global Organized Crime Index, which ranks Venezuela in the top ten percent of countries in the world by the influence of criminal actors within the country, show that there are strong indications that parts of the Venezuelan state apparatus are deeply involved in criminal activities.
Annual reports on the Organized Crime Index are published by the Global Initiative to Combat Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), a civil society organization based in Geneva.
The latest report, published in November 2025, stated that Colombian guerrilla groups "manage supply chains in collaboration with corrupt Venezuelan officials."
"They have integrated themselves into local communities, often manipulating young people to work for them under the guise of legitimate employment, and have taken over local justice systems and governance structures," it said.
It added that the "symbiotic relationship" between Colombian guerrilla groups and Venezuelan state officials has facilitated their operations, which, it said, "has resulted in minimal violence but significant control over border regions."
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