Serbian mafia

The Serbian mafia (Serbian: Српска мафија, Srpska mafija), or Serbian organized crime, are various criminal organizations based in Serbia or composed of ethnic Serbs in the former Yugoslavia and Serbian diaspora. The organizations are primarily involved in smuggling, arms trafficking, drug trafficking, human trafficking, assassinations, heists, assault, protection rackets, murder, money laundering and illegal gambling. Ethnic Serb organized crime groups are organized horizontally; higher-ranked members are not necessarily coordinated by any leader. Serbian organized crime emerged during the 1970s as increasing numbers of Yugoslav expatriates emigrated to Western Europe. Serbian gangsters in Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and France carried out robberies and heists with the support of the Yugoslavian security services, which employed expatriate criminals as informants and assassins, and in exchange provided them with weapons and legal protection. Such government support, along with the wealth Serbian gangs accumulated through a pattern of robberies, allowed the Serbian mafia to become one of the most powerful crime groups in Europe by the 1980s. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, many Serbian gangsters throughout Europe returned to Serbia to exploit new criminal opportunities and serve in paramilitary units during the Bosnian War. The Serbian mafia gave many Serbs a perceived way out of the economic disaster that occurred in the country following the implementation of internationally imposed sanctions against Serbia during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. Serbian criminals have also been recruited into state security forces, a notable example being Milorad "Legija" Ulemek, a commander in Arkan's Tigers, which was re-labelled as the JSO (Red Berets) after the war. During the period when the cigarette mafia operated, the Serbian mafia earned about 100 billion dollars. The annual earnings of the Serbian mafia in Cocaine market are estimated at $80 billion. the Serbian mafia is composed of several major international criminal organizations specializing...