Reuters AlertNet Lite - Bosnian police crack down on Sarajevo crime gang

Reuters AlertNet Full site

NEWSDESK

Bosnian police crack down on Sarajevo crime gang

03 Jul 2007 16:20:10 GMT
Source: Reuters

SARAJEVO, June 3 (Reuters) - Bosnian police arrested four suspected members of an organised crime gang on Tuesday and were hunting nine more in a crackdown following the murder last week of a Sarajevo gang boss.

Local media reported the gang members, all but one ethnic Albanians, were suspected of involvement in contract killings and racketeering.

"Police detained four suspects during raids on 19 residences and business premises believed to be used by the gang in the area of Sarajevo, Zenica and Gorazde," the Interior Ministry of Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation said in a statement.

Police said that among those on the run was the prime suspect in the murder of mafia boss Ramiz Delalic, who was gunned down at the entrance to his apartment building on June 27 in an apparent settling of accounts.

The killing was the latest in a string of shootings of underworld figures in Sarajevo.

Delalic, a Bosnian Muslim, was one of several crime bosses who helped defend Sarajevo against Bosnian Serb forces during the 1992-95 war, and occasionally singled out ethnic Serb civilians for punishment, sometimes killing them.

At the time of his death, he was on trial for the March 1992 killing of a man during a Serb wedding in downtown Sarajevo, an episode that many Bosnian Serbs say triggered the war.

AlertNet news is provided by

Email this article Send comments

Countries

Small country map
© 2004 Europa Technologies Ltd.

Reset map

• Bosnia-Herzegovina profile
· View map

MORE >>

NGO latest

• Severe Poverty in the UK
Save the Children - International Alliance

• Participating in the broader health agenda
International HIV/AIDS Alliance - UK

MORE >>

Latest news

• Bosnian police crack down on Sarajevo crime gang

• UN ruling delays Croat general's war crimes trial

• NATO, EU force raid house of Karadzic's wife

• Hague tribunal prosecutor could stay until end 07

• Hague tribunal prosecutor could stay until end 07

MORE >>

Last updated:Tue Jul 3 16:22:10 2007