Darko Saric

Montenegro's National Security Council session in Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro

Croatia's Bureau for the Prevention of Corruption and Organized Crime, USKOK, has filed an indictment against eight Croatian citizens for smuggling hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and selling weapons.

The principal defendant, Petar Cosic, 52, is also accused of the murder of Milan Milovac, 47, who collaborated with the Belgrade drug lord Darko Saric.

The Belgrade Court of Appeal has quashed the first-instance verdict which sentenced indicted drugs smuggler Darko Saric and 12 members of his group for laundering at least 20 million euros in Serbia and ordered a retrial.

In addition to Saric and lawyer Dejan Lazarevic, Uros Misic was also questioned.
As "Novosti" previously learned, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime (TOK) issued an order to launch a new investigation against Darko Saric.

Darko Saric, allegedly a major Serbian drugs trafficker, was arrested on Thursday morning at his wife's villa in Belgrade's upmarket suburb of Senjak as part of an international operation coordinated by EUROPOL and EUROJUST, the EU's agencies for law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation.

Serbia's Supreme Court of Cassation on Tuesday revoked the final verdict against Darko Saric and other convicts for cocaine smuggling because of procedural oversight, and returned the case to the Court of Appeals. The court did not question the evidence on the basis of which Saric was convicted.

The Belgrade Higher Court on Monday in a first-instance verdict found the alleged crime boss Darko Saric guilty of smuggling 5.7 tons of cocaine from South America to Europe and jailed him for 15 years - after a four-year trial marked by speculation, intrigues and suspicions.

Monday's expected verdict in the trial of alleged crime boss and drugs smuggler Darko Saric will end a four-year-long case that has been marked by speculation, intrigues and suspicions.

In a report from the trial of Nafiz Modack, who is accused of racketeering and "shady dealings" around the security business in Cape Town's nightclubs, the South African website News24 said that one of the witnesses, a policeman, said there were "several recorded conversations Modack had, including with someone in Serbia."

After one of the judges from the Trial Chamber in the marathon case against alleged drugs baron Darko Saric was reassigned - meaning that the trial will have to start again - a Serbian journalist who has been following the case voiced suspicions of possible obstruction.