Zemun Clan
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The Zemun Clan (
Serbian Cyrillic The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet ( sr, / , ) is a variation of the Cyrillic script used to write the Serbian language, updated in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two alphabets used to write standard modern Serbian, th ...
: Земунски клан) is one of the
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
clans of the
Serbian mafia Serbian organized crime or Serbian mafia ( sr, Cpпска мафија / Srpska mafija) are various criminal organizations based in Serbia or composed of ethnic Serbs in the former Yugoslavia and Serbian diaspora. The organizations are primari ...
. It is named for the gang's base in
Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...
, a municipality of Belgrade. The peak of the clan's power and influence occurred between 1999 and 2003 and they were considered to be one of the most powerful organisations in
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.


History

In 1993, Dušan Spasojević, a former lower-league association football player who would later become the head of the Zemun clan, arrived to Serbian capital city of
Belgrade Belgrade ( , ;, ; Names of European cities in different languages: B, names in other languages) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Serbia, largest city in Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers a ...
from his home village of Retkocer, near
Medveđa Medveđa ( sr-cyr, Медвеђа, ; sq, Medvegja, ) is a town and municipality located in the Jablanica District of southern Serbia. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 2,848 inhabitants, while the municipality has 7,438 ...
in southern Serbia. Retkocer's proximity to Kosovo is what earned Spasojević the nickname Šiptar (''the Albanian''), even though he was a Serb. On his trip to Belgrade, he was accompanied by his childhood friend and future associate, Mile Luković, called Kum (''the Godfather''). Luković came from Donji Gajtan near Medveđa, and has previously worked as a prison guard in
Priština Pristina, ; sr, / (, ) is the capital and largest city of Kosovo. The city's municipal boundaries in Pristina District form the largest urban center in Kosovo. After Tirana, Pristina has the second largest population of ethnic Albanians an ...
. Upon arriving to Belgrade, the two men soon got involved in car theft. In 1995, Belgrade police arrested Spasojević and Luković while they were trying to steal a civilian car parked in front of a military hospital. The car theft operation was led by a certain "Peca", and targets were people coming to visit wounded friends or relatives in the hospital. Due to the ongoing
Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia from ...
, the number of such visits was large. Presumably, the group operated either under the control, or in cooperation with, the
Surčin Surčin ( sr-Cyrl, Сурчин, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. As of 2011 census, it has a population of 43,819 inhabitants. It is the newest municipality of Belgrade, having split from the municipality of Zemun in 2003. Its most ...
clan, the largest organised car theft group in the country. In 1997, Spasojević and Luković moved from cars to pushing drugs in the Belgrade suburb of
Karaburma Karaburma ( sr-cyr, Карабурма) is an urban neighborhood of the municipality of Palilula, Belgrade, Serbia. As of 2002, it has a population of 55,343 inhabitants. Name The name, Karaburma, is Turkish for ''black ring'' which is suppo ...
, and after getting arrested again, they became police informants. After finding out that his son is a drug dealer, Luković's father committed suicide. Spasojević and Luković soon became close to the leader of the
Surčin Surčin ( sr-Cyrl, Сурчин, ) is a municipality of the city of Belgrade. As of 2011 census, it has a population of 43,819 inhabitants. It is the newest municipality of Belgrade, having split from the municipality of Zemun in 2003. Its most ...
clan, Ljubiša Buha. The two men used Buha's numerous connections to their advantage and established their base of operations in
Zemun Zemun ( sr-cyrl, Земун, ; hu, Zimony) is a municipality in the city of Belgrade. Zemun was a separate town that was absorbed into Belgrade in 1934. It lies on the right bank of the Danube river, upstream from downtown Belgrade. The developme ...
neighborhood, relatively close to Surčin. Nominally, Spasojević and Luković were considered members of the Surčin group, but later became increasingly autonomous in their operations. During this period, Sretko "The Beast" Kalinić joined Spasojević's group as their chief hit-man. His methods included drive-by shootings from a grey
Audi Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. Th ...
(dubbed the "Audi of Death" by the media) and, in at least one case, grinding the victim in a meat grinder. The group definitely parted way with Buha after he decided to turn legit and start a road construction company, called ''Defense Road''. The Zemun clan grew in prominence after the downfall of
Slobodan Milošević Slobodan Milošević (, ; 20 August 1941 – 11 March 2006) was a Yugoslav and Serbian politician who was the president of Serbia within Yugoslavia from 1989 to 1997 (originally the Socialist Republic of Serbia, a constituent republic of ...
with an influx of many veterans of the Special Operations Unit (widely known as ''Red Berets''), including the unit's commander,
Milorad Ulemek Milorad Ulemek ( sr, Милорад Улемек; born 15 March 1965), also known as Milorad Luković () and "Legija" (), is a Serbian former commander of the Serbian police special unit, the Special Operations Unit (JSO) and a former paramilitary ...
. These were people who had military training, wartime experience and connections with elements of the Serbian state secret service
UDBA The State Security Service ( hr, Služba državne sigurnosti, sr, Служба државне безбедности; mk, Служба за државна безбедност; sl, Služba državne varnosti), also known by its original name ...
(after 2001, renamed to BIA). In September 2001, 700 kilos of heroin were found in a bank vault rented by Beobanka to the BIA, in central Belgrade. The illegal safekeeping was never explained nor brought up. In 2001, the Zemun clan organized "special training courses" with the BIA, lending them information on Kosovar Albanian insurgents in exchange."Working Paper"
Anastasijević
During 2001, the clan kidnapped several influential businessmen and demanded millions as ransom money. Among those men were Milija Babović and
Miroslav Mišković Miroslav Mišković ( sr-cyr, Мирослав Мишковић; born 5 July 1945) is a Serbian oligarch, business magnate, investor and owner of Delta Holding. Mišković's net worth was estimated to be $2 billion in 2007, according to the l ...
, widely considered to be the most powerful business people in Serbia at the time. In both cases, Ulemek offered his help to the police, in his official capacity. He abused that position and provided insider information to the clan: for example, when he found out that Babović's family quickly and easily collected the ransom money, he advised the clan members to demand more. Eventually, all the hostages were released, however, some were severely beaten and tortured in the process. Alerted by the increasingly brazen kidnappings, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Dušan Mihajlović has ordered the formation of an undercover unit within the police, led by experienced officer Mile Novaković, with the sole task of bringing down the perpetrators. During their trip to
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, Spasojević and Luković have been arrested by the French police on the account of having fake passports. They were extradited to Serbia and have spent several months in custody, but were ultimately released, despite protests by several high ranking police officers. The Clan formed the so-called ''"crowbar brigade"'' (''"pajser brigada"''), consisting of around 50 underage or young delinquents from different areas of Belgrade, whose primary job was to harass, extort and torture the drug addicts who owed the Clan money. Although crowbar was their primary weapon, they used all sorts of blunt weapons. The "brigade" was controlled by Spasojević's associates, Dušan Krsmanović and Milan Jurišić. Spasojević had built a villa with an adjacent shopping mall in Šilerova street, a relatively poor neighborhood within Zemun. Built for around 8,5 million German Marks, it was surrounded by 7m high walls, contained an Olympic swimming pool with ocean rubble, and chairs covered with pony hair. The villa also had a torture chamber in the basement, however the clan usually avoided keeping the hostages there. In 2002, the clan attempted to assassinate Buha twice: once in front of his company ''Defense Road'' in Belgrade, and again during his vacation in
Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...
. The last attempt prompted Buha to drive all the way to the Serbian embassy in
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and offer to testify. He was transferred to a secure location where gave his testimony in the presence of the Serbian state prosecutor and the police unit led by Novaković. During the period that started with the
Yugoslav Wars The Yugoslav Wars were a series of separate but related#Naimark, Naimark (2003), p. xvii. ethnic conflicts, wars of independence, and Insurgency, insurgencies that took place in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, SFR Yugoslavia from ...
and ended with the assassination of Prime Minister
Zoran Đinđić Zoran Đinđić ( sr-Cyrl, Зоран Ђинђић, ; 1 August 1952 – 12 March 2003) was a Serbian politician who served as the prime minister of Serbia from 2001 until his assassination in 2003. He was the mayor of Belgrade in 1997. Đinđi ...
in March 2003, connections between the Serbian Mafia and the government were obvious and corruption was rampant in most branches of the state, from border patrols to law-enforcement agencies. On 12 March 2003, Đinđić was
assassinated Assassination is the murder of a prominent or important person, such as a head of state, head of government, politician, world leader, member of a royal family or CEO. The murder of a celebrity, activist, or artist, though they may not have a ...
by former Special Operations Unit member Zvezdan Jovanović. The government then set in motion a major operation against organized crime codenamed
Operation Sabre Operation Sabre was a Royal Navy military operation in World War II. It involved cutting the Japanese submarine communications cable linking Saigon and Singapore. operating from an X-Craft midget submarine in the Saigon River delta on 31 July 1 ...
, which led to more than 10,000 arrests. The revenue of New Belgrade malls, locations frequented by gangsters, plummeted by more than 20+% after the Operation. Milan Sarajlić, the Deputy State Prosecutor of Serbia, was arrested and confessed to being on the payroll of the Zemun clan. The Red Berets were dissolved on 23 March 2003.''Organized Crime in the Western Balkans''
/ref> Spasojević and Luković were killed by the police in front of their hiding place in the village of Meljak near Belgrade, on 27 March. The official explanation has been that both were killed in a shootout with the police, but this has been disputed by many, including the famous Serbian lawyer
Toma Fila Toma Fila (; born 29 July 1941) is a Serbian lawyer and politician serving as a member of the National Assembly since 3 August 2020. He is also a member of the presidency of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) and a member of the Diocesan Council ...
. The villa in Šilerova street was demolished. In 2006, it was revealed that Spasojević was a source of information to Serbian Radical leader
Vojislav Šešelj Vojislav Šešelj ( sr-Cyrl, Војислав Шешељ, ; born 11 October 1954) is a Serbian politician, founder and president of the far-right Serbian Radical Party (SRS); he was convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Tribuna ...
, whom he had given information about high-profile murders carried out in Serbia, written about in Šešelj's two books (Šešelj referred to Spasojević under the pseudonym ''Laufer'').


The "new" Zemun Clan

After a period of relative silence, the organized groups from Zemun and surrounding areas once again increased their activities. In November 2009,
Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...
Police arrested 5 Serbian drug couriers and seized their 492 kilograms of cocaine in
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. On 31 October 2009, Serbian police arrested over 500 people in the biggest ever anti-drug operation carried out in Serbia. The routes of the drugs were from
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and
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to
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to Northern
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,
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and
Montenegro ) , image_map = Europe-Montenegro.svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Podgorica , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , official_languages = M ...
. Serbian organized crime experts estimated that 10,000 foot soldiers form a part of the 5 major organized crime groups operating in the country.Serbia: Cheap drugs and corruption fuels mafia expansion
/ref> A courier package of 5 kilos of cocaine was intercepted from Paraguay and 4 Belgraders were arrested. The busts were part of ''Operation Balkan Warrior''; an international drug smuggling case that involves mainly the new Zemun Clan. The leader of the new drug ring is Željko Vujanović.


Notable people


In popular culture

* Serbian crime TV series ''"Klan"'' is a satire of the Zemun Clan, with the names changed and the plot taking place in the 2020s.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11007186/


References

{{Reflist Organizations established in the 1990s 1990s establishments in Serbia Organized crime groups in Serbia