Reports said that police raided homes and cars of suspected organized crime figures in a long-planned operation and arrested six suspects. Spokesman Krunoslav Borovec said the suspects could not be named. Serbian station B92, however, reported among those arrested were the brothers Sebastijan, Zoran and Roko Rodic, and that police had reacted to news that the brothers were planning a revenge attack for the February murder of their brother Vinko.
EU: Kosovo Has Lots of Work Ahead
EU ministers last week noted that Kosovo has its work cut out for it if the former Serbian province wants to one day join the 27-nation EU. Kosovo, according to the EU council of ministers, must bolster the rule of law and rid itself of organized crime and corruption.
But Kosovar authorities – no matter what bad shape their new nation is in – should have plenty of time before the EU can even order what’s called a feasibility study for potential membership: EU member states
Anti-corruption Day Marked
In the same week that a
Parliament will pass new laws allowing the seizure of illegally obtained assets next year, announced Serbian Interior Minister Ivicia Dacic last week, as he proclaimed a new push against organized crime for 2009. “I can promise that no one involved in crime in the
Also last week, a Bulgarian state river shipping company official told the press that Serbian pirates have attacked his boats on the Danube River 38 times in the past two years. Cargo, cables and fuel have been the targets of the armed pirates who mostly attack near the port of the Serbian steel town Smederovo, deputy director Ivan Ivanov told the BBC’s Serbian service. Interior ministry officials in
In news of theft of a more petty kind, two Russian nationals were arrested in
The security structures of a country that faces rising Islamic extremism are compromised by corruption, reports the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that focuses on
On November 25 the Interior Ministry listed its own most corrupt departments, and the criminal investigators were at the top of the list. The head of the Interior Ministry’s internal security service, Karakeldy Kydyrbayev, said that almost 60 officers from Interior Ministry agencies were sacked in 2008 for various violations, 39 criminal cases were launched, 36 crimes were recorded, and only 17 cases of bribery were prevented. This pervasive corruption, which the Bakiyev regime has promised to deal with since the Tulip revolution, also permeates other official bodies. (Kyrgyz Television 1, Bishkek, November 25).
Corrupt traffic cops may also be behind the country’s rising rates of vehicle crashes, reports EurasiaNet, a publication affiliated with the Open Society Institute. While crap road infrastructure and the enormous increase in the number of vehicles on the roads probably contributes to the horrific numbers – in 2007, 1,252 people died and 6,223 were injured in accidents, up one-quarter from the year before – traffic police who take bribes to supplement their $60/month paycheck are also to blame. A former traffic cop turned traffic safety lobbyist noted:
"According to my calculation, 35 percent of drivers are from the so-called ’untouchable caste.’ These are judges, prosecutors, police, intelligence officials, high-ranked bureaucrats, deputies and so on. They are unreachable by law and the police. Another 35 percent of drivers have money and are able to bribe traffic police. Imagine, only 30 percent of drivers are afraid to be punished and try to follow the rules," (Raymkuluulu)Kasymbek said.
Anti-mafia police in the Calabrian region last week seized €7 million worth of assets from a local man they believe is an associate of one of the Calabrian mob’s most powerful families. The items seized from Carmelo Bruzzese, 59, included shares, bank accounts, two electrical goods firms and various vehicles. Police also sealed off Bruzzese’s villa and several plots of land. Police suspect him of being close to the Mazzaferro-Ierino and Cuntrera-Caruana family, believed to be active in
Also last week,
Though phone taps have been one of the more powerful tools in Italian anti-mafia police and prosecutors’ toolkits, some Italian politicians are proposing limits on telephone snooping. They are pushing for taps that can only be used to prosecute crimes carrying a prison sentence of at least 10 years. But prosecutors and judges are rebelling:
National anti-mafia prosecutor Pietro Grasso has told parliament his investigations could be hampered if a new law prevents him from using wiretaps to gather information on relatively minor crimes, such as extortion and fraud, perpetrated by the major crime organisations, and if it restricts the timeframe during which taps can be conducted.
… magistrates have warned that the changes are just one of a number of reforms that would reduce the autonomy and effectiveness of the judiciary and make it more difficult to detect the white-collar crimes committed by politicians.
Which is exactly what the politicians seem to be trying to do. Corruption scandals have erupted in various regions of
Last week Gerardo D'Ambrosio, a former anti-corruption