VZCZCXRO7575
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHBW #0469/01 1521647
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 011647Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY BELGRADE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1331
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RHEHNS/NSC WASHDC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCPDC/USDOC WASHDC
RUZEJAA/JAC MOLESWORTH RAF MOLESWORTH UK
RHMFISS/HQ USEUCOM VAIHINGEN GE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 000469 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KWAC SR
SUBJECT: SERBIA: ARREST OF POWERFUL BALKAN ORGANIZED CRIME FIGURE 
JOCA AMSTERDAM 
 
REF:  A) BELGRADE 212, B) 08 ZAGREB 750 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. (SBU) Following President Tadic's March promises to crack down on 
organized crime (Ref A), on April 27 the Serbian police arrested 
notorious organized crime figure Sreten Jocic, better known as Joca 
"Amsterdam," for the October 2008 murder of Croatian journalist Ivo 
Pukanic.  Jocic was arrested based on information and evidence 
provided by the Croatian authorities.  Since there is no bilateral 
treaty between Serbia and Croatia which would allow Jocic's 
extradition, if indicted he will be tried in Serbia.  As the head of 
the most powerful Serbian organized crime group, Jocic has long 
posed a direct threat to national and regional security.  Serbian 
authorities continue to investigate this crime and have said they 
intend to arrest all involved, reportedly including Serbian 
businessman Stanko Subotic "Cane," resident in Switzerland, 
suspected of ordering Pukanic's murder.  End Summary. 
 
 
The Arrest 
---------- 
 
¶2. (U) Sreten Jocic, aka Joca "Amsterdam," was arrested in Belgrade 
on April 27 on charges of involvement in the October 23, 2008, 
murder of journalist Ivo Pukanic, founder of the Croatian weekly 
"Nacional."  (As reported Ref B, Nacional editor-in-chief Pukanic 
and his marketing director Niko Franic were killed by a bomb that 
exploded in front of Nacional headquarters in Zagreb, Croatia. 
Croatian media described Pukanic's murder as a mob assassination, as 
he was long rumored to have ties to alleged mobsters and other 
unsavory businessmen. He allegedly got much of the seed money for 
Nacional in 1995 from convicted mobster Hrvoje Petrac and 
controversial businessman/banker Nevan Barac.)  Serbian police 
arrested Jocic in Dedinje, an upscale residential area of Belgrade, 
in a villa that Jocic rented from Mira Markovic, widow of late 
Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.  Jocic was charged with 
criminal conspiracy and murder.  An investigative judge of the 
Belgrade District Court on April 29 ordered 30 days detention and 
launched a formal investigation of Jocic.  The detention was 
extended for another 60 days on May 27. 
 
¶3. (U) Serbian police continue to arrest others believed to have 
been involved in Pukanic's murder.  On May 30 they arrested Milenko 
Kuzmanovic on suspicion of supplying the explosives for the attack. 
(Kuzmanovic had previously been detained by the Croatian authorities 
on the same charges but released after 55 days for lack of 
evidence.)_ On June 1, Serbian police arrested Zeljko Milanovic on 
charges of placing an explosive-laden motorbike next to Pukanic's 
car and detonating the charge remotely. 
 
Example of Good Regional Cooperation 
------------------------------------ 
 
¶4.  (U) This high profile arrest of Jocic was the direct result of 
joint operation and coordination of Serbian and Croatian police and 
prosecutors.  This cooperation began immediately after Pukanic's 
murder, and resulted in the October 30, 2008, arrests in Zagreb and 
Bajakovo, Croatia (near the Serbian border) of ten people accused of 
organizing the bombing, including Slobodan Djurovic (Jocic's best 
man and closest associate) and Robert Matanic.  In November 2008, 
Interior Ministers from Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Croatia and 
Slovenia gathered for an unofficial meeting in Sarajevo where they 
discussed, inter alia, Pukanic's killing and concluded that the case 
demonstrated the need for closer regional police cooperation. 
 
¶5.  (U) Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic and his Croatian 
counterpart Tomislav Karamarko on December 12, 2008, signed a 
memorandum of understanding on stronger ties between the two 
ministries, with the goal of efficiently combating organized crime. 
This document then became the legal basis for the exchange of what 
Minister Dacic described as "reliable information and valuable 
evidence" collected by Croatian authorities against Jocic that led 
to his arrest. 
Following the arrest, Ministry of Justice State Secretary Slobodan 
Homen announced that it would not be possible to extradite Jocic due 
to the lack of a bilateral extradition treaty with Croatia. 
(Although Serbian law was recently changed to permit extradition of 
its nationals in accordance with international treaties, the 
Croatian constitution forbids extradition of Croatian citizens; the 
impossibility of reciprocity makes a bilateral agreement unlikely.) 
Homen said he was confident that, if indicted, Jocic would be tried 
in Serbia. 
 
 
BELGRADE 00000469  002 OF 002 
 
 
Who is Joca Amsterdam? 
--------------------- 
 
¶6. (U) Sreten Jocic, a Serbian citizen, is by far the most dangerous 
and powerful criminal in the region.  His international criminal 
organization is involved in murder-for-hire, drug smuggling, and 
other lucrative crimes in European countries such as The Netherlands 
and Bulgaria, as well as in Serbia and its Balkan neighbors.  Jocic 
escaped prison in The Netherlands in 1993 and settled in Bulgaria. 
In 2002 Bulgarian authorities arrested him and extradited him to The 
Netherlands, where he spent three years in prison.  In 2005 Jocic 
was extradited from The Netherlands to Serbia where he was until 
recently free on bail while standing trial for a murder he allegedly 
ordered in 1995 and other crimes. 
 
¶7.  (U) After returning to Serbia, Jocic re-established connections 
with local criminals and regained his leading position in drug 
trafficking.  Through partners, Jocic reportedly managed to launder 
most of his money through the construction and restaurant 
businesses.  Many informed observers saw Jocic as a serious threat 
to regional and national security, with ambitions to control police, 
judiciary and the government. 
 
Who Will Be Next? 
---------------- 
 
¶8. (U) According to reports in the Serbian media, one of the 
individuals arrested in Croatia in connection with the Pukanic 
murder agreed to cooperate with the police and provided evidence 
linking Serbian businessman Stanko Subotic "Cane," who lives in 
Switzerland , to the case.   (After Pukanic's murder, Italian 
prosecutor Giuseppe Sclesi told the media that Pukanic was a key 
witness in a cigarette smuggling case against Subotic and 
Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic.)  Subotic allegedly 
hired Jocic to organize the execution of Pukanic.  Jocic then 
engaged his best man Djurovic and Croatian criminal Matanic to 
prepare the attack, which took several months. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) A senior official of the Democratic Party, who told us in 
March that Jocic would soon be arrested, recently informed us that 
Subotic would be next.  Serbian authorities are reportedly working 
closely with their Swiss counterparts on the case. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶10. (SBU) The arrest of Jocic is a positive and welcome signal that 
Serbia is committed to the fight against organized crime, as 
President Tadic has so vocally promised.  The level of regional 
cooperation, which permitted the Serbian authorities to arrest Jocic 
after they had been unable to develop their own evidence against 
him, is particularly encouraging.  Our government contacts assure us 
that investigations into organized crime will continue and that more 
arrests will follow.  End Comment. 
 
 
MUNTER