Die alten Verbrecher Kartelle arbeiten überall im Balkan: von Slowenien bis Bulgarien was ein Versagen vor allem der Justiz Bringer der EU ist.
Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić’s national security advisor has maintained contact with major organized crime figures since before 2008 when he entered government.
Serbian PM was Warned of Tončev’s Mafia Ties
By Stevan Dojčinović, Bojana Jovanović and Christoph Zotter
Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić’s national security advisor has maintained contact with major organized crime figures since before 2008 when he entered government.
An internal government intelligence report shows that Ivica Toncev’s ties to organized crime were known to the prime minister. Yet, despite that knowledge and warnings from diplomats of several major countries, Toncev gained in power and responsibility.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Center for Investigative Reporting in Serbia (CINS) was given access to a leaked report titled “Information on activities and contacts of Ivica Tončev” dating from mid-2012.
It is not clear why the report was generated or what it was used for. No sources officially verified the authenticity of the report, as is common with intelligence files, but neither would anyone declare it inauthentic. OCCRP and CINS collected dozens of company and court records from Austria, Bulgaria and Serbia, and talked with at least 19 sources from politics, law enforcement, diplomacy and the criminal world to confirm details in the report. OCCRP found no provable inaccuracies. Because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue, no source would talk on the record.
Mafia Ties
The report paints a picture of Tončev as having long-time relationships with the underworld in Austria and Serbia.The report said Tončev met with at least five major organized crime figures mostly during his time as a government official. CINS/OCCRP was able to find two additional meetings: one is documented in a photo showing Tončev and a sixth crime figure and a second is documented in records of an Austrian company Tončev and a seventh crime figure shared.
Tončev, in a four-hour conversation with reporters, denied the report’s characterization of him as close to criminals. He admitted meeting some of the men but said none of the meetings were significant or he was unaware they were involved in crime.
The Advisor and the Mobster
Serbian PM was Warned of Tončev’s Mafia Ties
By Stevan Dojčinović, Bojana Jovanović and Christoph Zotter
Serbian Prime Minister Ivica Dačić’s national security advisor has maintained contact with major organized crime figures since before 2008 when he entered government.
An internal government intelligence report shows that Ivica Toncev’s ties to organized crime were known to the prime minister. Yet, despite that knowledge and warnings from diplomats of several major countries, Toncev gained in power and responsibility.
The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) and Center for Investigative Reporting in Serbia (CINS) was given access to a leaked report titled “Information on activities and contacts of Ivica Tončev” dating from mid-2012.
It is not clear why the report was generated or what it was used for. No sources officially verified the authenticity of the report, as is common with intelligence files, but neither would anyone declare it inauthentic. OCCRP and CINS collected dozens of company and court records from Austria, Bulgaria and Serbia, and talked with at least 19 sources from politics, law enforcement, diplomacy and the criminal world to confirm details in the report. OCCRP found no provable inaccuracies. Because of the extreme sensitivity of the issue, no source would talk on the record.
Mafia Ties
The report paints a picture of Tončev as having long-time relationships with the underworld in Austria and Serbia.The report said Tončev met with at least five major organized crime figures mostly during his time as a government official. CINS/OCCRP was able to find two additional meetings: one is documented in a photo showing Tončev and a sixth crime figure and a second is documented in records of an Austrian company Tončev and a seventh crime figure shared.
Tončev, in a four-hour conversation with reporters, denied the report’s characterization of him as close to criminals. He admitted meeting some of the men but said none of the meetings were significant or he was unaware they were involved in crime.
The Advisor and the Mobster
Showdown with organised crime in BiH, region continues
13/12/2013
Efforts against organised crime by police and the courts are slowly showing results in the Balkans, but more needs to be done, experts and citizens said.
By Drazen Remikovic for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo — 13/12/13
 Regional police can co-operate in ending organised crime, experts say. [AFP] |
Officials in Brussels are urging authorities in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) and the region to take further efforts to stop organised crime.
“Institutions in the region must show independence and be able to cut the operations of organised crime. Real progress in this struggle cannot be achieved without efficient and stable co-operation between police and judicial authorities. Organised criminal groups are still very present in all countries of the western Balkans and have successful cross-border co-operation,” Jelko Kacin, European Parliament rapporteur for the Western Balkans, said in September.
Uros Pena, deputy of director of the Directorate for Co-Ordination of Police Bodies in BiH, said organised crime is a consequence of the situation in the country.
“I think that if we were a finely arranged country in all fields, there would not be such cases. Where’s the problem? NGOs say that crime has eaten the whole country. If you ask the courts, they didn’t prosecute even one-tenth of those cases. What do we need to do? Analyse the situation. Gather all those opinions and all the information in one place. Something like a crime census. When we know what we’re dealing with, then we can act against it more effectively,” Pena told SETimes.
Marko Nicovic, a police expert and former chief of Interpol’s Office in Belgrade, said several issues need to be dealt with before organised crime in the region can be brought under control.
“Three factors are crucial: co-operation between the states. Criminals work together, so why don’t the police do the same? The second is material position of police officers, which in the Balkans needs to be improved. They are the first line of the struggle and they must be secured in order to be independent. The third is the decentralisation of the police. For example, the chief of police in Sarajevo should be elected by the city of Sarajevo,” Nicovic told SETimes.
Despite the criticism, BiH has been making efforts to stop organised criminals.
In what has been described as the largest trial on organised crime in BiH, on November 29th, the state court sentenced Zijad Turkovic to 40 years in prison for running a crime ring that committed several murders, attempted murders, smuggled drugs, laundered money and committed millions of euros in robberies……….setimes