At the request of Austrian authorities, Europol updated its arrest warrant for suspected drug lord and head of a notorious criminal organization, Montenegrin Radoje Zvicer, by adding new photos and aliases.
In addition to Montenegro and Serbia, Austria is now also seeking his arrest for allegedly selling drugs in Vienna. Zvicer is also under investigation in Greece.
The updated warrant includes 15 aliases, each accompanied by different dates and places of birth. It also features photos showing his varied appearances—bald, with hair, and with or without a beard.
Zvicer, a reputed leader of the Kavač clan, is one of Europe’s most wanted suspects and considered one of the most enigmatic figures in organized crime, with little known about his personal life. To the long list of crimes he is suspected of, the warrant now also includes “illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.” Authorities describe him as “dangerous” and potentially “armed.”
According to Austria’s Interior Ministry, Zvicer is suspected of overseeing the import of 83 kilograms of cocaine into Austria as a top member of a criminal network.
Officials allege Zvicer played a key role in coordinating smuggling operations and organizing deliveries to accomplices who sold the drugs in Vienna.
Austrian authorities released several photographs of Zvicer, describing him as a muscular, athletic man with blue eyes, brown hair, and multiple scars from gunshot wounds, particularly on the left side of his upper body.
Zvicer survived an assassination attempt in May 2020 while jogging in downtown Kyiv, allegedly targeted by assassins hired by the rival Škaljari clan. In February 2021, the Škaljari clan reportedly attempted another hit near Bosnia’s Jahorina ski resort, where Zvicer and his wife, Tamara, who had fired back at attackers in Kyiv, were vacationing.
The feud escalated in September 2022 when a leading figure of the Škaljari clan, Jovan Vukotić, was killed in Istanbul. A gunman on a motorcycle shot Vukotić as he sat in his car with his family. Before he was assassinated, Vukotić was allegedly offering a bounty of 4 million euros ($4.23 million) for the deaths of Zvicer and fellow Kavač leader Slobodan Kašćelan.
Both the Kavač and Škaljari clans hail from Kotor, Montenegro, on the Adriatic coast. Originally allies in smuggling cocaine from South America into Europe, the two groups split in 2014 over a botched drug deal. Their ensuing conflict fractured Serbia’s and Montenegro’s criminal underworld, pulling in other gangs and allegedly even police and politicians on both sides.
This violent rivalry has claimed dozens of lives across the Balkans and beyond as the two clans vie for control of lucrative smuggling routes, feeding Europe’s 5.7 billion-euros-a-year cocaine market.
