OCCRP Publishes Joca Amsterdam Profile

Sretan Jocić, one of Serbia’s most feared and vicious gangsters, has left a trail of bodies, charges and allegations around Europe over the past two decades. Along the way he’s escaped from justice twice, muscled in on businesses and killed one of his greatest rivals.

After one arrest, in Bulgaria, reports swirled that he had help from the highest levels of government there.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project has tracked down records that give a glimpse into Jocić’s violent legacy and his years on the run. OCCRP reporters dug up a 1993 charge from the Netherlands, where he was imprisoned for attacking a police officer. He escaped a year later, and while on the run ordered the gangland hit of another Serbian mobster. He eluded authorities and disappeared for years, and records show he owned a furniture business and lived comfortably in Bulgaria.

Interpol finally found him hiding out in Bulgaria in 2002, and dragged him back to the Netherlands to finally finish his sentence for attacking the police officer there.

Then he was shipped to Serbia and convicted of organizing the murder of gangster Goran Marjanović, AKA Goksi Bombaš. Court records say Jocić has been involved in multiple murders, drug trafficking and racketeering.

And now he faces trail in Belgrade for perhaps his most notorious crime: The bombing murder of Croatian journalist Ivo Pukanić, the owner of the Croatian magazine Nacional. OCCRP records reveal that Jocić and other Serbian mobsters created a game, offering up to €1.5 million for whoever came up with the best way to kill Pukanić. And the records show that Jocić even arranged for a sniper to take out Pukanić in case he somehow survived the bomb blast.

The records shed light on a violent criminal who has spread fear and death across the Balkans for more than two decades.

To learn more about this person of interest, see their profile.