500 arrests in Serbian drug bust

02/11/2009

Loads of weapons and ammunition, stolen cars, counterfeit money and narcotics were seized in the nationwide sweep.

(B92 - 02/11/09; Beta, B92 - 01/11/09; Reuters, AP, DPA, B92, EMportal - 31/10/09)

The goal of Saturday's actions was to "paralyse" the dealer networks. [Getty Images]

Top Serbian officials said on Sunday (November 1st) that a crackdown on drug trafficking launched by authorities the previous day was part of efforts to root out organised crime and corruption in the Balkan nation.

More than 500 people were arrested during a massive sweep against drug dealers launched simultaneously across Serbia at 6am Saturday. Around 2,000 police officers were involved in the operation, dubbed Morava, in which more than 600 buildings were searched.

"We have kept in custody 100 suspects out of 500 that were arrested and seized dozens of kilograms of various drugs, a large cache of weapons and ammunition, a number of stolen cars, as well as $1.5m forged [US] dollars," Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Sunday.

The Morava operation signalled his country's determination to fight drug trafficking, he added, noting that the goal of Saturday's actions was to "paralyse" the dealer networks.

"The aim was not to confiscate a large amount of drugs or to arrest a great number of people, but to stop the distribution of drugs to schools and cafes, and prevent it from any further spreading," Dacic told reporters.

Praising the institutions involved in the operation, President Boris Tadic said Sunday that the anti-drug crackdown was just the first phase of a plan to fight organised crime and corruption.

"This is not the action of any specific ministry, rather the state of Serbia and the Council for National Security giving orders for what institutions and services should be doing what job," Belgrade-based B92 quoted him as saying. "All these actions are part of a well-thought-out plan which should result in an essential success in the fight against organised crime and corruption."

Tadic also stressed that the efforts would continue, while Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic vowed earlier that "nobody will be protected or spared".

Citing police sources, some Serbian media reported on Monday that one of those detained during the weekend raids was the son of late General Radovan Stojcic Badza, a former high ranking police official who was killed in Belgrade in 1996. Vojkan Stojcic reportedly was nabbed during the search for a local drug dealer in the southern town of Nis.

The opposition Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) criticised the government, dismissing the Morava operation as nothing more than a marketing trick to boost the ruling parties' ratings.

"Serbia needs a serious, organised and uncompromising fight against organised crime, which is seriously eating away at our society, not an ad hoc marketing move which will take the small fish off the streets for 48 hours or 30 days at most," Marko Djuric, an SNS official, said.

The Morava operation is the largest since the major crackdown on organised crime launched immediately after the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003.

Citing the ongoing reforms in the Serbian court system, political analyst Misa Vlasic appeared sceptical that the effort to "paralyse" the drug dealing networks would produce the desired results.

"I am not an optimist when our court system is in question, taking into consideration recent decisions and the shaky situation of the last several years, but that depends on the quality mostly, of the evidence that the police have gathered and the quality of the indictments which will be issued," B92 quoted Vlasic as saying.