How drug cartels recruit seafarers and why some of them ‘can’t’ turn down the job

The nightclub in Santos, Brazil, was in fact a center where drug cartels recruited dozens of sailors from Montenegro and the region. Some agreed because they wanted to make a quick buck, others because they were told it was their only option if they wanted to save their lives.

Research by Vijesti shows that few resisted the call and that some of the others ended up in illegality or behind bars.

However, some have built business empires in this way, which in many cities in the former Yugoslavia have become synonymous with success…

The newspaper’s source claims that most of them are being closely monitored by international investigators and that, as he said, it is only a matter of time before they are arrested…

“Everything is for sale here, including life… This club is quite remote and you have to get out and get to the ship. And anyway, I can always take you back to the gate safely,” the leader of the international drug cartel told a Montenegrin sailor who went to party in a nightclub in Santos on a long summer night.

Earlier, the armed man had asked him if they could pack the cocaine on the container ship he was sailing to Brazil. He had made it clear that even when he and his colleagues (names known to the journalist from “Vijesti”) got off the ship, he knew where to wait for them.

The sailor remained ‘clean’ despite a dangerous confrontation with the leader of an international cartel from the former Yugoslavia.

Research by “Vijesti” shows that many are not. A night bar with the same name as a Brazilian football club has been closed as part of an investigation into international cocaine smuggling.

Walking the path to the south

After the 1990s and a series of murders attributed to the purges of the then State Security Service (UDBA), many young boys from those teams left for the southern hemisphere to survive.

Like Dobroslav Gavrić, who first went to Croatia on a false passport, then to Italy, and then to Cuba and Ecuador, arriving in the Republic of South Africa in 2007, dozens of boys went to Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Panama.

They disappeared en masse, says one of the interviewees of “Vijesti”.

“At that time, money bought a new identity and a new life, which made it possible to find a complete Yugoslav network and logistics in the south. After them, they kept coming, mostly refugees,” the sailor said at the beginning of the story.

Following this information, “Vijesti” spoke with a member of the Foreign Security Service, who told “Vijesti” who the Montenegrins are, but also the citizens of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Slovenia, who have been responsible for dirty work for decades.

Some of them have been imprisoned for years in Latin America, others have been arrested by international investigators and threatened with long prison sentences, individuals have been liquidated in mutual confrontations, but all over the South there are still “safe havens” for the EX YU mafia…

“There was everything before 2005-2006. year, but then the real “profitable” stories began. Montenegrin citizen (name known to the journalist), friend of the murdered head of the Skaljar clan, Jovan Vukotić, came and stayed in the south, more precisely in Brazil, a little over a decade and a half ago. He settled in Santos. At first he had problems with the local police because of his vices, but he quickly joined the local mafia and since then it has been a base for many who came from the area of ​​the former Yugoslavia. Some left, while others stayed and did dirty work for criminals from the former Yugoslavia. “The Montenegrin stayed, determined the routes, made dirty deals, rented or bought houses and ships that were used to transport drugs from Colombia, Bolivia and Peru,” said the interlocutor of “Vijesti”.

He also explains how those fleeing the law or looking for quick money found their way at the end of the last century and the beginning of this century.

“The south became the base of the old guard of the Yugoslav mafia. In addition to this sixty-year-old Montenegrin citizen who was arrested for smuggling large quantities of cocaine, an important link in making criminal deals, especially those involving cocaine smuggling, in the late 90s was Zoran Jakšić, the leader of the America clan. He was first arrested in 1998 in Peru, and in prison he strengthened his contacts and continued his work after his release. He has been in prison in Peru for eight years, but the bars have not stopped his work. This was also shown after cracking several protected applications, which gave us insight into the almost complete network of the so-called Balkan cartel. Many guys from the former Yugoslavia came along the same paths that the old guard used to get to the south, I will remind you of Goran Nešić and his son Aleksandar, or two guys from Sarajevo – David Cufaj, born in Belgrade and Smail Šikaj, associates of Edin Gačanin Tito. Or the recently murdered Darko Geisler Nedeljković, who, as is suspected, committed multiple murders for the Montenegrin and Bosnian mafia. He was liquidated in São Paulo in front of his wife and child. He had a false identity under the name Dejan Kovač. Before the murder, while Montenegro was looking for him, with a completely new identity, but old habits, he went to the port with trucks – importing goods, importing containers to the port… He retired when it became dangerous, but not in time,” said the interlocutor of “Vijesti”.

They are everywhere

He explained how the criminals knew who was on which ship and who to ‘pursue’ and offer him a dangerous job. He said drug cartels are deeply rooted in various layers of society, including shipping companies…

“That team in the south, and also in their home countries, infiltrated with money various spheres of society, so even today they have influence over many people who have to answer all their calls, launder money for them, provide them with information, documents, set up someone they no longer need or who has gotten out of hand, like the members of their outposts in Montenegro – the Kavački and Skaljar clans… We must not forget a very important link in that chain – people from the old service, some of whom have been arrested, or immigration officers in world ports. These are all international ports open for traffic and immigration services, the border police have their own stations and teams in all these ports. Since these are fast container ships (maximum 24-36 hours in port), the entire state system is subordinate to them because it is billions of dollars in cargo and exports. Big companies like MSC and Maersk have deals with governments and have an advantage. Literally everything ends on the fly. For example, in the past, cartel mercenaries of the police, deployed in the ports, would hand over the passports of new sailors and details of when the ship would leave (partenza, departure in Italian) to the mafia for 300 dollars. That’s how much the fate of people in the south once cost, whose lives changed in the blink of an eye. That’s how many guys fell. “Some made millions, some became businessmen, some died… that’s how big consortia usually emerged, like some in Montenegro,” said the “Vijesti” interlocutor.

Since August, more than 30 tons of cocaine bound for Europe have been seized

Since the beginning of August, US and European security services have seized more than 30 tons of cocaine, most of which was en route to Europe or ready for transport to the Old Continent. There, clan cells are said to seize the cocaine in the ports of Antwerp (Belgium), Rotterdam (Netherlands) or in the Mediterranean, the ports of Valencia (Spain) and Genoa and Gioia Tauro (Italy).

The interlocutor of the Foreign Security Service said that during the recent actions, during which a significant number of members of the Zaliv clan were arrested, it was confirmed to them that several citizens of the former Yugoslavia were also part of that clan:

“They are still in the territory of South America. They are the link with members of the Balkan drug cartel and the Albanian mafia and an important link in the transport of cocaine to Europe. We have discovered the identity of most of them operationally and we are currently working to locate them and deprive them of their freedom”…

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