SERBIA: ARREST OF POWERFUL BALKAN ORGANIZED CRIME FIGURE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000469

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O.12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KWAC SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA: ARREST OF POWERFUL BALKAN ORGANIZED CRIME FIGURE
JOCA AMSTERDAM

REF: A) BELGRADE 212, B) 08 ZAGREB 750

Summary
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1. (SBU) Following President Tadic's March promises to crack down on
organized crime (Ref A),on April 27 the Serbian police arrested
notorious organized crime figure Sreten Jocic, better known as Joca
"Amsterdam," for the October 2008 murder of Croatian journalist Ivo
Pukanic. Jocic was arrested based on information and evidence
provided by the Croatian authorities. Since there is no bilateral
treaty between Serbia and Croatia which would allow Jocic's
extradition, if indicted he will be tried in Serbia. As the head of
the most powerful Serbian organized crime group, Jocic has long
posed a direct threat to national and regional security. Serbian
authorities continue to investigate this crime and have said they
intend to arrest all involved, reportedly including Serbian
businessman Stanko Subotic "Cane," resident in Switzerland,
suspected of ordering Pukanic's murder. End Summary.


The Arrest
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2. (U) Sreten Jocic, aka Joca "Amsterdam," was arrested in Belgrade
on April 27 on charges of involvement in the October 23, 2008,
murder of journalist Ivo Pukanic, founder of the Croatian weekly
"Nacional." (As reported Ref B, Nacional editor-in-chief Pukanic
and his marketing director Niko Franic were killed by a bomb that
exploded in front of Nacional headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia.
Croatian media described Pukanic's murder as a mob assassination, as
he was long rumored to have ties to alleged mobsters and other
unsavory businessmen. He allegedly got much of the seed money for
Nacional in 1995 from convicted mobster Hrvoje Petrac and
controversial businessman/banker Nevan Barac.) Serbian police
arrested Jocic in Dedinje, an upscale residential area of Belgrade,
in a villa that Jocic rented from Mira Markovic, widow of late
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic. Jocic was charged with
criminal conspiracy and murder. An investigative judge of the
Belgrade District Court on April 29 ordered 30 days detention and
launched a formal investigation of Jocic. The detention was
extended for another 60 days on May 27.


3. (U) Serbian police continue to arrest others believed to have
been involved in Pukanic's murder. On May 30 they arrested Milenko
Kuzmanovic on suspicion of supplying the explosives for the attack.
(Kuzmanovic had previously been detained by the Croatian authorities
on the same charges but released after 55 days for lack of
evidence.)_ On June 1, Serbian police arrested Zeljko Milanovic on
charges of placing an explosive-laden motorbike next to Pukanic's
car and detonating the charge remotely.

Example of Good Regional Cooperation
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4. (U) This high profile arrest of Jocic was the direct result of
joint operation and coordination of Serbian and Croatian police and
prosecutors. This cooperation began immediately after Pukanic's
murder, and resulted in the October 30, 2008, arrests in Zagreb and
Bajakovo, Croatia (near the Serbian border) of ten people accused of
organizing the bombing, including Slobodan Djurovic (Jocic's best
man and closest associate) and Robert Matanic. In November 2008,
Interior Ministers from Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and
Slovenia gathered for an unofficial meeting in Sarajevo where they
discussed, inter alia, Pukanic's killing and concluded that the case
demonstrated the need for closer regional police cooperation.


5. (U) Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic and his Croatian
counterpart Tomislav Karamarko on December 12, 2008, signed a
memorandum of understanding on stronger ties between the two
ministries, with the goal of efficiently combating organized crime.
This document then became the legal basis for the exchange of what
Minister Dacic described as "reliable information and valuable
evidence" collected by Croatian authorities against Jocic that led
to his arrest.
Following the arrest, Ministry of Justice State Secretary Slobodan
Homen announced that it would not be possible to extradite Jocic due
to the lack of a bilateral extradition treaty with Croatia.
(Although Serbian law was recently changed to permit extradition of
its nationals in accordance with international treaties, the
Croatian constitution forbids extradition of Croatian citizens; the
impossibility of reciprocity makes a bilateral agreement unlikely.)
Homen said he was confident that, if indicted, Jocic would be tried
in Serbia.


BELGRADE 00000469 002 OF 002


Who is Joca Amsterdam?
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6. (U) Sreten Jocic, a Serbian citizen, is by far the most dangerous
and powerful criminal in the region. His international criminal
organization is involved in murder-for-hire, drug smuggling, and
other lucrative crimes in European countries such as The Netherlands
and Bulgaria, as well as in Serbia and its Balkan neighbors. Jocic
escaped prison in The Netherlands in 1993 and settled in Bulgaria.
In 2002 Bulgarian authorities arrested him and extradited him to The
Netherlands, where he spent three years in prison. In 2005 Jocic
was extradited from The Netherlands to Serbia where he was until
recently free on bail while standing trial for a murder he allegedly
ordered in 1995 and other crimes.


7. (U) After returning to Serbia, Jocic re-established connections
with local criminals and regained his leading position in drug
trafficking. Through partners, Jocic reportedly managed to launder
most of his money through the construction and restaurant
businesses. Many informed observers saw Jocic as a serious threat
to regional and national security, with ambitions to control police,
judiciary and the government.

Who Will Be Next?
--------------


8. (U) According to reports in the Serbian media, one of the
individuals arrested in Croatia in connection with the Pukanic
murder agreed to cooperate with the police and provided evidence
linking Serbian businessman Stanko Subotic "Cane," who lives in
Switzerland , to the case. (After Pukanic's murder, Italian
prosecutor Giuseppe Sclesi told the media that Pukanic was a key
witness in a cigarette smuggling case against Subotic and
Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.) Subotic allegedly
hired Jocic to organize the execution of Pukanic. Jocic then
engaged his best man Djurovic and Croatian criminal Matanic to
prepare the attack, which took several months.


9. (SBU) A senior official of the Democratic Party, who told us in
March that Jocic would soon be arrested, recently informed us that
Subotic would be next. Serbian authorities are reportedly working
closely with their Swiss counterparts on the case.

Comment
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10. (SBU) The arrest of Jocic is a positive and welcome signal that
Serbia is committed to the fight against organized crime, as
President Tadic has so vocally promised. The level of regional
cooperation, which permitted the Serbian authorities to arrest Jocic
after they had been unable to develop their own evidence against
him, is particularly encouraging. Our government contacts assure us
that investigations into organized crime will continue and that more
arrests will follow. End Comment.


MUNTER