last week, and found untold quantities and qualities of drugs, weapons and money. The raids were a continuation of Operation Balkan Warrior, which began last year when Serbian and US DEA agents seized nearly three tons of cocaine destined for Europe in waters off Uruguay. The Serbian-Montenegrin leader of the gang, Darko Saric, remains at large.

By Beth Kampschror

In another strange example of Serbia-South America drug connections, three Serbs working as bodyguards to a Bolivian drug lord were killed last week in a shoot-out in the country, according to Bolivian and Serbian media. A Bolivian policeman has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the murders. Serbian radio-television B92 :

Italian police last week whom Interpol of the Pink Panthers jewel thieves gang. Radovan Jelusic, who was arrested in a Rome coffee bar carrying a forged Croatian passport, is suspected of involvement in a 2007 jewelry store robbery in Tokyo.

By Beth Kampschror

Kyrgyzstan’s interim government last week took a few corruption-related actions against two men connected to the previous regime – the regime ousted in a violent coup early last month. Police on Friday and, without going into any details about the case, charged him with abuse of power. And the son of former president Kurmanbek Bakiyev – the one widely alleged to have enriched himself off deals involving fuel for the US air base in the country – is related to those deals. RFE/RL had the story:

By Beth Kampschror

A bloody uprising last week toppled the government in Kyrgyzstan, and opposition leaders have formed an interim government until they can hold elections in six months.

By Beth Kampschror