Darko Šarić found guilty of smuggling 5.7 tons of cocaine

Drug lord Darko Šarić was found guilty in the Special Court of smuggling 5.7 tons of cocaine from Latin America to Western Europe and sentenced to 20 years. All defendants were also found guilty. Šarić, nor his lawyer, appeared in court. Šarić stated that he did not wish to attend the pronouncement of the verdict, reports the BH News Agency Patria.

The three-judge panel determined that the organizers of the smuggling group were the defendants Darko Šarić, Goran Soković, and Željko Vujanović. The panel also determined that Dragan Dudić "Fric", who was killed at the end of May 2010, was also an organizer.

Members of Šarić's group were found guilty of each transport from Latin America to Europe.

Darko Šarić, in public, or rather the media, first "appeared" in October 2009, when the media reported that Uruguayan police seized 2.8 tons of cocaine on the yacht "Maui", under the British flag, in the port of Santiago Vázquez, 25 kilometers west of Montevideo.
Two people were arrested on that occasion, a Uruguayan and a Serb, who tried to transfer cocaine from the yacht to an ocean-going vessel, whose final destination was Western Europe. The drug shipment was intercepted as part of the joint operation "Balkan Warrior" by the American agency DEA, the Serbian BIA, and the Uruguayan police.

In parallel, the Belgrade police arrested members of Šarić's group who were in Serbia. In January 2010, an international arrest warrant was issued for Darko Šarić. After years on the run, Darko Šarić surrendered to the Serbian authorities on March 18, 2014, after which he was arrested and has been in custody ever since.

He claimed he was not guilty on any count and that the seized drugs were not his, and he repeatedly accused police officers and controversial businessmen of framing him.

Although a total of 36 members of Šarić's group were indicted under six consolidated indictments, besides Šarić, nine other defendants are on trial at the Special Court in Belgrade, as 13 are still on the run, nine have pleaded guilty, and three have been granted the status of cooperating witnesses.

Besides Šarić, the defendants on trial are Nikola Dimitrijević, Željko Vujanović, Miloš Cajić, Borislav Tunjić, Nikola Dimitrijević, Živko Sibinski, Boban Stanojković, Marko Dabović, and Aleksandra Mišić. Defendant Darko Tošić was recently arrested in the Netherlands, and Serbia has requested his extradition.

The cooperating witnesses in this procedure are Radan Adamović, Nebojša Joksović, and Draško Vuković.

They are not excluded from the indictment, although they will not be sentenced at the end of the process, as a "reward" for their cooperation in shedding light on criminal offenses.
Rodoljub Radulović aka Miša Banana, Goran Soković, Marko Pandrc, Nenad Novaković, Boško Nedić, Darko Gazdić, Milovan Milovac, Bojan Stanojković, Petar Obradović, Marko Račić, Vladimir Račić, Mihajlo Đoković, and Nebojša Sretenović are still on the run. Interpol arrest warrants have been issued for them.