Serbia's Ruling Party Linked to Organized Crime Amidst Mafia Wars, Journalists Claim

Recent mafia-style killings in Serbia have reignited questions about the ruling SNS party's alleged ties to organized crime. This has fueled a crisis of confidence among voters, impacting even some of President Aleksandar Vučić's supporters.

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The fact that we have a police chief connected to crime and involved in criminal acts is a completely known matter that has been proven many times.

The murder of Saša Vuković, also known as "Boske," at a Belgrade restaurant saw several dramatic turns. Initial reports suggested the head of the Belgrade Police Directorate, Veselin Milić, aided in concealing evidence. However, later accounts placed him away from the scene during the shooting.

Despite these developments, a core question remains for many Serbians: what was the head of the country's largest police directorate doing with two known figures from the criminal underworld? Stevan Dojčinović, editor-in-chief of the investigative portal KRIK, finds this connection unsurprising. "The fact that we have a police chief connected to crime and involved in criminal acts is a completely known matter that has been proven many times," he told DW.

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Until 2021, the state cooperated very closely with subgroups of the Kavač clan, and then things turned around – they became state enemies, and the state began to cooperate with the opposing group.

Dojčinović asserts that the Serbian state, controlled by the SNS, is directly interwoven with organized crime. He explains that the state doesn't have a single stable partner but collaborates with various criminal factions depending on circumstances. "Until 2021, the state cooperated very closely with subgroups of the Kavač clan, and then things turned around – they became state enemies, and the state began to cooperate with the opposing group," Dojčinović stated. He believes these shifting alliances have contributed to the bloody feuds within Serbia's underworld, which have claimed over a hundred lives in the past decade, often in broad daylight.

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We see this primarily in the fact that people who suddenly start getting state contracts come directly from the criminal milieu, such as Zvonko Veselinović and Milan Radojičić.

Journalist Branko Čečen traces this relationship between the SNS and the criminal underworld back to the beginning of Vučić's rule. "We see this primarily in the fact that people who suddenly start getting state contracts come directly from the criminal milieu, such as Zvonko Veselinović and Milan Radojičić," Čečen said. A striking example emerged from the investigation into Veljko Belivuk, allegedly the leader of a notorious organized crime group, who reportedly told prosecutors he would "tell everything" about his group's relationship with President Vučić and the then-Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin.

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he would tell everything