A police source told Beta that “all people who the police had any information on related to drug dealing were arrested.”
Asked whether “serious, large dealers” were arrested, the source said that police “did not pay attention to whether they were serious or not, and whether they had a gram or a kilogram of drugs.”
“They are all in the same chain, they are all the same problem, and we did not want to have anyone say that we only picked up the ‘small fish.’ while the ‘larger’ ones are untouchable,” the source said.
Such was the criticism that came from the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS is not a progressive party in the lefty sense that we know it in the West, but rather a bizarrely re-named group of malcontents from the right-wing Serbian Radical Party). The party accused the government of using the raids as a means of self-promotion. According to party official Marko Djuric:
“Serbia needs a serious, organized and uncompromising fight against the organized crime which is seriously eating away at our society, not an ad hoc marketing move which will take the small fish off the streets for 48 hours or 30 days at most,” Đurić said.
Đurić said that SNS demands the arrest of the largest criminals which the drugs and organized crime come from in Serbia.
While it’s incredible that a political movement so rooted in crimes itself has the audacity to criticize the government’s moves to fight crime, more credible criticism came from analyst Misa Vasic.
Vašić told B92 that this action comes at the worst moment for the courts, who are in the middle of great reforms, and must deal with many emergency cases for remanding people into custody in order for the “paralysis” to work.
“I am not an optimist when our court system is in question, taking into consideration recent decisions and the shaky situation of the last several years, but that depends on the quality mostly, of the evidence that the police have gathered and the quality of the indictments which will be issued,” he said.
News from Farther East
The FBI last week broke up an international documents fraud ring that worked out of one rather glamorous location – the US embassy in Kiev – and one not-so glamorous location – a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.
Twenty five people, including three Clevelanders who were arrested Thursday, are suspects in what the FBI says was a criminal enterprise which not only sold Ohio drivers licenses to immigrants, most here illegally, but also peddled entry visas for $12,000 each at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv.
The FBI said Ukrainians, Russians and Uzbeks were involved in the ring, which conspired to provide between 300 and 500 illegal immigrants with driver’s licenses and state IDs. Back in Kiev, the Ukrainian interior ministry arrested seven people, including two US embassy employees, for their alleged roles in the ring.
Also last week, the US Treasury’s financial crimes arm warned US banks to do extra due diligence when working with money from several countries, including Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, saying that they had “deficiencies” in their anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing methods. Uzbekistan, it would appear from the notice, has not implemented the laws that have been passed. Turkmenistan has no financial intelligence unit.
And in news more or less from Russia, though billionaire Oleg Deripaska has been banned from visiting the US for several years over government concerns that he’s connected to organized crime, Deripaska has come to the country twice this year alone. His secret travel arranger? The FBI, according to the Wall Street Journal. The story made it sound like a very cozy arrangement:
Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska met with FBI agents in August and earlier this month as part of a continuing criminal probe, according to two administration officials. The focus of that probe couldn't be learned.
Mr. Deripaska used the opportunity of his recent U.S. visits to meet with top executives of U.S. investment banks Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. The aluminum giant he controls, UC Rusal, is preparing for an initial public offering, a vital part of Mr. Deripaska's efforts to save his debt-burdened business.
Albania Passes Forfeiture LawAlbania is the latest country to adopt asset forfeiture laws that apply to suspected criminals, according to the Tirana Times. Any suspect who’s believed to be living beyond his or her legally stated means will be eligible to watch as the police confiscate property, money and other assets. Albania’s already adopted a similar law that applies to terrorism suspects; the new law is one of the European Union standards that Albania must adhere to if Albanians are to travel to the EU without visas.
Delay of Corruption Case Against BAE Systems?
Corruption charges against Britain’s largest weapons maker might be delayed until next year, as Britain’s Serious Fraud Office struggles to build a case against BAE Systems that will stand up in court, reports the Times of London.
The SFO is investigating allegations of bribery and corruption in four deals that BAE did with South Africa, Tanzania, the Czech Republic and Romania.BAE has denied any wrongdoing and says that, if charges are brought, it will fight them in court, if necessary.
It appears, however, that BAE may escape questioning over the South Africa and Romania deals as the SFO is understood to be preparing to jettison large parts of its investigation. It is likely that the SFO will focus on one or two incidents rather than try to bring a case so large that it could collapse under its own weight.
The case may eventually be settled out of court, as the SFO and the company had been negotiating but did not agree on a settlement by an SFO deadline in September.
Other Corruption News in France, SpainJacques Chirac has become the first former French president to face corruption charges, over allegations that he gave friends large salaries and expense accounts for doing phantom jobs while he was mayor of Paris, in exchange for bribes. He’s denied the allegations. A French appeals court will decide whether the case goes to trial.
And Spanish newspaper El Mundo announced on Sunday that money laundering, bribery, tax fraud and other malfeasance by politicians had cost Spain €4.2 billion in the last decade. The paper calculated the figure based on court records and investigations of 28 big cases; El Mundo warned that the real amount the country has lost is probably much larger.
Italy: Three Camorra Brothers Aarrested
Italian police arrested three brothers believed to be higher-ups in the Russo clan of the Naples-based Camorra over the weekend. Police found Russo clan head Salvatore Russo after tearing down a thick wall at a chicken farm outside Naples on Saturday morning. Salvatore Russo, 51, had been on the run since 1995. His brothers Pasquale, 62, and Carmine, 47, were arrested Sunday morning at a farmhouse north of Naples. Salvatore and Pasquale Russo had apparently reorganized the Camorra in the past 10 years, and the clan controls all the illegal activities in about 40 Naples-area towns.
Berlusconi’s Latest
Authorities announced last week that another corruption trial involving Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will resume on Nov. 27. Berlusconi had faced several corruption trials before his allies in parliament passed a law granting him immunity from prosecution while in office. Since Italy’s Constitutional Court struck down the law at the beginning of October, the courts have kicked into gear. The Nov. 27 court date will see the resumption of a case alleging that Berlusconi paid his British lawyer $600,000 to give false testimony at two trials in the 1990s. On Nov. 16, Berlusconi heads to court in a case that alleges his television company overcharged for broadcast rights and caused the tax authority to lose out on revenue. Berlusconi has denied all the charges, and last week said that Italy’s magistrates were communists who were unfairly targeting a billionaire.
