Serbia: Serbians among 17 arrested in Brazilian cocaine smuggling ring sweep

Belgrade, 6 May (AKI) - Brazilian police moved to break up an international cocaine smuggling ring by arresting 17 people, including at least four Serbian citizens, Serbian police minister Ivica Dacic said on Friday.

Dacic said among the arrested was Goran Nesic, who had been sentenced to eight years for drug smuggling and Serbia had issued a warrant for his arrest. He said among the arrested were also Alen Memovic, Aleksandar Sekulic and Milan Karanovic for whom Serbia issued arrest warrants.

Dacic said the operation was carried out in cooperation between Brazilian and Serbian police and American anti-drug agency DEA. He said he expected more information from the Brazilian colleagues as well as the names of all arrested.

Brazilian police said it seized 620 kilos of cocaine and about 840,000 euros in cash during the operation.

Twenty people were arrested in Serbia in October 2009 for smuggling over two tonnes of cocaine from South America to Europe. The suspected ring leader Darko Saric is still at large and Serbia had issued an international warrant for his arrest.

Dacic said it wasn’t clear at the moment whether those arrested in Brazil belonged to Saric’s group, because there were several clans of drug smugglers operating in Serbia.