Europol arrests Balkan drug trafficking leaders using a secret chat platform for criminals

Three countries have been involved in the takedown of the largest drug trafficking criminal organisation in the Balkan region, resulting in the seizure of assets worth about €5 million and the arrest of the former leader of the Pink Panther international jewel thieves network.

“On 11 May, coordinated raids were carried out in Serbia and the Netherlands, targeting both the cartel’s leadership and distribution infrastructure,” Europol, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, said in a statement.

“A total of 23 individuals have been arrested, including the three leaders of this criminal organisation, considered as High Value Targets by Europol.”

The Europol team was able to trace the criminal network by accessing their communications on Sky ECC, a popular messaging service for the underworld, akin to WhatsApp for criminals.

Believed to have been uncrackable in the past, French and Dutch investigators managed to break into Sky ECC in early 2021 and launched a simultaneous series of 200 raids into smuggling and criminal networks.

Sky ECC became popular with drug criminals after its successor Encrochat was cracked in 2020.

“In cooperation with France, Belgium and the Netherlands, and with the support of Europol’s Drugs Unit, Serbia was able to identify key targets on its territory, and map out their criminal activities across the world,” the statement continued.

Multitonne cocaine shipments are believed to have been transported by this criminal organisation directly to Europe from Colombia, Brazil, and Ecuador, or through West African logistical infrastructures.

In the criminal underworld, this gang was known for its violence and high-end robberies.

“One of the targets arrested in Serbia was a former leader of the infamous Pink Panther criminal group,” said the statement.

Pink Panther is an international jewel thief network whose heists have been described as some of the most audacious in organised crime history. Approximately 800 members of this group are believed to be former military or paramilitary figures from Serbia, Montenegro and the former Yugoslavia who used their experience from the wars of the 1990s to rob jewels all over the world.

The Pink Panthers are named after the French comedy series franchise featuring the famously inept Inspector Jacques Clouseau and his hunt for burglars. One of the plots revolved around a rare pink diamond named The Pink Panther.

According to Europol, “the criminal kingpins, arrested in Belgrade as part of this operation, were the biggest cocaine traffickers in the Western Balkans identified as part of the ongoing analysis work carried out on Sky ECC data.”

The items seized by police include 15 high-end cars, luxury jewellery and watches with an estimated worth of about €2 million, as well as almost €3 million in cash.

They also seized a trove of weapons and explosives, including two sniper rifles, three automatic rifles, guns, silencers, more than a dozen packages of plastic explosives and remote detonators, and several hundred ammunition rounds.