ATHENS – Prosecutors in Serbia have charged 19 people, including two notorious gangsters, over the shooting deaths of four Montengrins in Greece in separate incidents in 2020 over what was said to be a war between mobsters in Montenegro.

Among those indicted were Darko Saric, a Serbian citizen born in Montenegro previously convicted of drug trafficking, and Veljko Belivuk, leader of the Janjicari, a football fan group with links to state officials and the security guard industry. Both are currently on trial for multiple criminal acts, said Balkan Insight.

https://balkaninsight.com/2024/08/22/high-profile-defendants-charged-over-gangland-style-murders-in-greece/

Seven people will be charged in absentia as part of the indictment, a joint investigation carried out by judicial authorities in Serbia and Greece, over the execution-style killings as Greek police were trying to battle organized crime.

In July 2020, according to Greek police, two Montenegrins were killed in a villa in Halikouna Beach on the island of Corfu. The victims, Alan Kozar and Damir Hadzic, had multiple gunshot wounds.

During the autopsy, 32 shell casings, seven fireballs and two metal fragments were collected. Greek police told the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network BIRN they also arrested one Albanian citizen over alleged involvement.

In January 2020 another two Montenegrin citizens, Stevan Stamatovic and Igor Dedovic, both 43, were shot dead with more than 20 bullets in front of children while dining at a well-known Greek tavern in Athens.

Both murders are suspected to be part of a bloody war between two notorious Montenegrin gangs, the Kavac and Skaljari, which has left around 100 people dead across Europe in the past decade. Saric, Belivuk and Zvicer are suspected to be part of the Kavac clan, the report said.