Darko Šarić ( sr-Cyrl, Дарко Шарић; born in 1969 in

Pljevlja Pljevlja ( srp, Пљевља, ) is a town and the center of Pljevlja Municipality located in the northern part of Montenegro. The town lies at an altitude of . In the Middle Ages, Pljevlja had been a crossroad of the important commercial roads and ...

SR Montenegro The Socialist Republic of Montenegro ( sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Socijalistička Republika Crna Gora, Социјалистичка Република Црна Гора), commonly referred to as Socialist Montenegro or simply Montenegro, was ...

SFR Yugoslavia The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, commonly referred to as SFR Yugoslavia or simply as Yugoslavia, was a country in Central and Southeast Europe. It emerged in 1945, following World War II, and lasted until 1992, with the breakup of Yug ...

) is a Serbian- Montenegrin drug trafficker.

Career

Šarić was charged with drug smuggling (primarily cocaine) in April 2010. He is said to have planned the murders of well-known politicians and police officers. According to the police, the list included Serbian President Boris Tadić, Minister of Justice

Snežana Malović Snežana Malović ( sr-cyr, Снежана Маловић, , born 10 September 1976) is a Serbian politician and former Minister of Justice in the Government of Serbia, and a former member of the Democratic Party. She served as Deputy Secretary t ...

, Secretary of State for Justice Slobodan Homen, and Special Prosecutor against Organized Crime, Miljko Radisavljević. The initial plans for the assassination attempts had been known since March 2010. In October 2009, an attempt to smuggle around 2.7 tons of cocaine from South America was foiled. The criminal group led by Šarić had its headquarters in Montenegro. The police estimated the proceeds at five billion euros. According to the State Secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Justice, Slobodan Homen, Darko Šarić earned one billion euros a year. There were diplomatic rifts between Serbia and Montenegro surrounding the arrest of Darko Šarić. Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović accused Serbian authorities of interfering with investigators' cooperation and thereby warning Šarić, allowing him to evade capture. The Serbian government, on the other hand, suspected Montenegro of granting protection to the fugitive. In July 2012, the Belgrade daily

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reported another 10 million euros bounty for the murders of 6 current or former state and government officials, whom Šarić blamed for the collapse of the drug trafficking operation he set up. At the beginning of 2014, Šarić was located in South America by the Serbian secret service BIA and arrested in a joint action by the Serbian and Montenegrin police after an international arrest warrant had been issued for him. He was taken to Montenegro on March 18 and finally to the Serbian capital, Belgrade, where he was due to face trial. Šarić's assets were confiscated. In 2018, Darko Šarić was sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking. In 2020, he received an additional 9 years in prison for money laundering.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saric, Darko 1969 births Living people Serbian criminals Male criminals Serbian gangsters Prisoners and detainees of Serbia Drug traffickers