HY RU EN
Asset 3

Loading

End of content No more pages to load

Your search did not match any articles

Vice President of Serbian Parliament has “Car Mafia” P.I. as Business Associate

BY DRAGANA PEĆO

The story begins with a stolen car. It ends -- according to a new investigation by KRIK, an OCCRP partner -- with a connection to Vladimir Marinkovic, a senior legislator and vice president of the Serbian National Assembly.

In late June 2001, a Mitsubishi Pajero SUV belonging to V.B., a Belgrade resident who didn’t want his name used for fear of retribution, was stolen.

His pregnant wife was behind the wheel.

“They attacked a pregnant woman. … As she stepped out of the car, [the thief] pulled her down and she fell on the asphalt,” V.B. told KRIK, recalling the incident seventeen years later. “It was a classic carjacking.” (The police report filed at the time describes a somewhat tamer version of the crime.)

According to the report, V.B. had heard from a friend that a private investigator named Ranko Vukomanovic had successfully resolved a similar case, and reached out to him.

The two men made a deal to start a search for the car. The detective called him that same evening saying that he had found it, but explained that the thieves had demanded 7,000 German marks (about US$ 3,000) for its return.

This demand raised V.B.’s suspicions that the detective knew more than he was admitting. He decided to call the police.

Together, he explained to reporters, he and the police officers then developed a plan: He would visit the detective and pay for his services -- and for the car -- with banknotes the police had given him.

The officers drove V.B. to the detective agency. One of them came in with him undercover, posing as a friend, while others stayed in their car outside.

Inside, detective Vukomanovic made several calls to unknown parties who allegedly knew where the stolen vehicle was. He then told V.B. that they wouldn’t let him see it until he had paid. He refused.

According to the police report, while they spoke, two of Vukomanovic’s associates -- Dragan Colovic, also a police officer, and Nenad Latincic, another employee of the detective agency -- came into the office.

Soon after, Vukomanovic and his colleagues began to suspect that the police were involved. The detective told V.B. that nothing could be done about his car, and that the thieves had withdrawn their offer. Colovic and Latincic rushed out of the office and tried to escape by car, V.B. said.

The officers outside reacted immediately and arrested all three men. This is how this group of “stolen cars ‘finders,’” as it was called in the media, fell.

V.B. told KRIK that he never saw his car again. And he’s not the scheme’s only victim. The police and the prosecutor's office found that the same group was behind at least six other car thefts in 2000 and 2001, according to documents obtained by KRIK.

Seventeen years later, nobody has been convicted for any of these thefts. V.B. can’t get over his bitterness to this day, and says he has lost faith in his country’s government and justice system.

The Gang Goes Free

Further details about how the group allegedly operated are revealed in police and prosecution documents, which describe the specific role played by each member.

Typically, one group of men would steal the cars using a specially designed tool called a “breaker” and take them to a safe place. Colovic would look up the license plates to find the vehicle’s owner and forward the information to Vukomanovic. The detective would then call the owner and offer to find the car -- for a price.

After being paid, the group would reveal where the vehicle was parked. They would then split the money among themselves, according to the police documents.

All three of the arrested men testified that the plan had been developed by Vukomanovic and Colovic, the police officer. According to their testimony, Colovic had approached Vukomanovic, telling him that he had an associate who could steal cars throughout Belgrade, and the detective agreed to the plan.

Vukomanovic also implicated a recently deceased criminal named Mirko Besevic in the scheme. Besevic -- also known as Besa -- became so infamous during the nineties that director Srdjan Dragojevic based one of the characters in his cult film “The Wounds” on him. Nearly a hundred criminal charges and several arrest warrants had been filed against Besevic, but he was killed in 2001 after being shot in a clash with police.

The police reports on the case were inconsistent. The final versions showed that Colovic and Latincic had confessed to the crimes; but according to the reports that describe their initial interrogations, they had denied any involvement.

In February 2002, prosecutors dropped all charges against Colovic and Latincic, and the proceedings continued only against Vukomanovic.

In the end, instead of indicting him for criminal offenses, prosecutors tried him for covering up the thefts. But after a four-year trial, the statute of limitations on the crimes expired in mid-2007 and the charges against him were dropped as well.

Vukomanovic told KRIK reporters that, despite the findings of the police investigation, he had never committed any crimes. He grew angry during the interview, threatening to investigate the journalist working on the story. “I’m going to call you in fifteen days, when I’m done with my investigation, to ask for your opinion about things you’ve done,” he said. “Private and business things!”

During his trial, Vukomanovic publicly boasted of his good ties with the police. To this day, he is often described in the media as a successful private detective with years of experience, and is frequently called on by journalists to comment on crimes.

Vukomanovic had also managed to establish a trusted relationship with a senior politician. According to the latest available data, “Belgrade's James Bond,” as the media calls him, is playing an important role in a company owned by Vladimir Marinkovic, a vice president of the Serbian parliament.

“I didn’t really know those details”

Marinkovic has been a member of Serbia’s National Assembly, which has just a single chamber, since 2012 -- first as an MP and later as a vice president. He was elected to his post as a member of the Social Democratic Party of Serbia, which is a member of the country’s ruling coalition.

read more

Write a comment

If you found a typo you can notify us by selecting the text area and pressing CTRL+Enter