Police in Republika Srpska, the Serb-dominated region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, identified the suspect by his initials M. B. and said he was from Cetinje, Montenegro. Apart from him, three local police officers were arrested for helping him hide from authorities.
Local media identified M.B. as Miloš Božović, member of the Škaljari clan from Montenegro. The Banja Luka-based Nezavisne novine paper also published a video of Božović's arrest.
Police said they searched the house Božović stayed at in Banja Luka and seized there a pistol that had its serial number scratched out, as well as ammunition for it, three flack jackets, a cellphone, a laptop, some money and other items.
Božović was taken to Sarajevo for questioning as a witness in another criminal case, that of Darko Elez, according to the country’s Prosecution Office.
Elez is the alleged boss of a criminal organization and is suspected of having killed five members of a rival gang. He is also accused of a number of robberies and other severe crimes across the region.
Montenegro is expected to request Božović’s extradition soon.
In the meantime, police in Banja Luka said on Monday that they released two of the tree inspectors they arrested on Sunday, though all of them have been suspended. Officers then arrested two other people, allegedly a father and a son, owners of a local restaurant, who are believed to have also assisted Božović.
Škaljari is one of two criminal gangs from Kotor, on Montenegro’s picturesque Adriatic coast. The other is the Kavač clan and the two were once the same gang and smuggling drugs from South America into Europe. They split in 2014 after a cocaine deal in Spain went bad, creating a violent rift that has deepened ever since — and pulled in other Serbian and Montenegrin crime groups.
