Zoran, the Serbian who came to Argentina to become the drug czar in South America

In the building that houses the federal courts of Morón, a policeman guards the blindex door that they cross three undercover DEA agents. They are Greeks and they are on the trail of a powerful drug trafficking international that made foot in Argentina: the Serbian Zoran Jaksic, boss of America Group, one of the bloodiest organizations in Eastern Europe on this continent.

The scene dates back to 2007, when envoys from the US anti-drug agency arrived at the judge’s office John Paul Salas. Wanted for drug trafficking and for the murders of other mob bosses, Jaksic had crossed borders, thanks to the multiple identities that he used (more than 40) and despite his striking height.

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For the member of the Balkan mafia, born in the former Yugoslavia on July 9, 1959, the alias “El Alto” is too small for him: It measures more than two meters.

The Greek detectives told the judge that they had arrived in the country in August, summoned by Zoran. They said that the Serb had settled, some years before, in an apartment of Puerto Madero, and in a fifth of Parque Leloir, the ecological neighborhood of Ituzaingó, together with his wife.

They also detailed that they were able to get to him thanks to a trick: They made him believe that they would collaborate in the shipment of liquid cocaine in bottles of Argentine wine to Greece. He was also involved in sending “human couriers” to Southeast Asia.

Salas did not delay in summoning Dangerous Drugs from the PFA and the Anti-Drug Directorate of the Gendarmerie and ordering the intervention of the telephones of the gang, which was also made up of several Peruvian citizens.

The drug operation, financed by the Serb, was already underway: it involved the acquisition of a boat; the purchase of the organic wine cellar High Green Factory, located next to route 40 in San Juan (which he chose after studying wineries in Mendoza); a corker; an “engineer” from Canada, and 500 kilos of cocaine that the Serbian planned to obtain thanks to his contacts with suppliers from the suburbs of Buenos Aires, but also from Peru and Brazil.

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He was also thinking of creating a ghost company in Italy to finance the transfers. It was even found thatThe organization sent a bottle to Spain that no one received and returned to Argentina. They did it to see if the drug camouflage evaded immigration controls and scanners.

Detectives also heard Zoran confess to his accomplices an ambitious dream: to become “the drug czar in South America”. And they believed him. The “Yugoslav” was only handled with dollars and euros in cash.

The setback that allowed Zoran Jaksic to escape from Argentina, leaving behind his wife and daughter

On September 8, 2008, an unforeseen unleashed, in advance, a mega-operative that the investigators planned to deploy to catch the powerful drug trafficker and disrupt the international cell. It happened when, in a vehicle control, the police stopped two people who were traveling on a motorcycle.

They carried 18 loaves of cocaine in a backpack. One of them, Carlos Romulo Gonzalez Gamboa, He was listed in the file as one of Zoran’s drug suppliers. Those in charge of the investigation feared losing track of the organization.

They raided, then, 18 properties linked to the Balkan mobster. In a Moreno house they found liquid cocaine, powdered cocaine and boxes full of bottles of wine. They arrested 14 people, but the Serbian giant had already vanished. Rooms requested his international capture, a red circular that is still in force in the offices of Interpol Argentina.

when escaping, Zoran abandoned his wife, Sladana M., and their young daughter, born in Argentina. The woman was arrested in the apartment where she lived on San Martín de Tours street, two blocks from MALBA. She was released shortly after: she had nothing to do with her partner’s maneuvers in the country.

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Sladana, a native of Palaka, had addiction problems. After his brief confinement, decided to migrate and give the baby up for adoption, far from the mafia environment in which his father moves. Thus, the girl was under the protection of a family from Buenos Aires, who was also involved in the shady business of the Serb. They keep in touch.

While the members of the organization he led in Argentina were sentenced to up to six years in prison, Zoran would fall, the following year, at the Barcelona airport, and after the alert of the Milan authorities.

The capture of Zoran Jaksic in Barcelona, ​​his extradition to Greece, the escape attempt in Peru and his sentence to 25 years in prison

A OCCRP investigation (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) retraced the steps of the heads of Grupo America. It is noted that Jaksic had passports from five different countries and seven cell phones.

In addition, it is highlighted that the Serbian was required by the Argentine, German, Dutch, Austrian and Greek Justice.

However, Zoran was extradited to Greece. But in 2016 he was recaptured in Tumbes, Peru, where he cultivated strong ties with the drug gangs that operate in the Port of “El Callao”, one of the main exit points used by the drug lords of the continent.

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In December 2020, Zoran was in the news again for the attempted escape similar to that of “El Chapo” Guzmán. They believe that he financed, along with other imprisoned drug lords, a tunnel to escape from the Piedras Gordas prison in Ancón. The Serbian would have invested $500,000 in contention.

Unlike the Mexican, Zoran’s plan was foiled. Due to its connection with a shipment of 800 kilos, in February 2021, the Serbian was sentenced to 25 years in prison, in the case known as “Las Golondrinas”.

Meanwhile, in Morón, a federal court located on Crisología Larralde, a street historically broken by the heavy wheels of buses full of passengers, awaits its turn to be able to seat it in front of a court.

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