Serbia Charges Sreten Josic with Croatian Journalist Murder

Sreten Josic is said to be the man behind the assassinations of Bulgarian mafia bosses Poli Pantev, Konstantin Dimitrov and Ivan Todorov among others. Photo by BGNES

Alleged Balkan drug lord Sreten Josic has been officially charged with the murder of the owner of the Croatian magazine "National" Ivo Pukanic.

Josic, also known as Joca Amsterdam, was detained at the end of April on charges of being an accomplice in the murder of Pukanic.

Ivo Pukanic, owner and editor-in-chief of the Croatian weekly "Nacional" and the publication's marketing director Niko Franic were killed by a car bomb on October 23 last year in downtown Zagreb.

"The prosecutor's office believes that the documents collected during the six months of investigation confirm suspicions that Josic, Milovanovic and Kuzmanovic are part of an international crime group, which includes citizens of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and that they are executors and master minders of these crimes," the Serbian prosecutor's office said in a statement.

According to the prosecutors the person behind the assault had paid EUR 150,000 to the murderers.

Serbian police expected Josic's arrest to lead to clues related to the murders of a number of mafia bosses, who were important players in cocaine trafficking from Latin America to Europe.

Most of them are believed to be Bulgarian underworld lords, who were Josic's partners in the supply and distribution of cocaine.

Josic has been linked to the assassinations of Poli Pantev, who was killed in March 2001 in Aruba, Konstantin Dimitrov a.k.a. Samokovetsa, shot dead in broad daylight in Amsterdam in December 2003 and Ivan Todorov - Doctora, who found his death in February 2006 in downtown Sofia.

At the beginning of April Sreten Josic made headlines in Bulgaria, telling a Belgrade court he enjoyed the protection of high-ranking officials here, citing the names of the then Interior Chief Secretary Boyko Borisov, who was later elected Sofia mayor and prime minister of the country, and Nikolay Gigov, owner of Lokomotiv football club.

Borisov vehemently denied the allegations, accusing the former ruling three-party coalition of crafting a long-term strategy to discredit him.

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