{"id":26636,"date":"2021-02-04T18:03:57","date_gmt":"2021-02-04T18:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=158609"},"modified":"2021-02-04T18:03:57","modified_gmt":"2021-02-04T18:03:57","slug":"serbia-dismantles-soccer-hooligan-crime-gang","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/04\/serbia-dismantles-soccer-hooligan-crime-gang\/","title":{"rendered":"Serbia &#8216;Dismantles&#8217; Soccer-Hooligan Crime Gang"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img src=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/88bf0ca1-5ca1-4d97-ae53-0aedc80a2771_w1200_r1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"wsw\">\n<p>BELGRADE &#8212; Serbian authorities say they have arrested 17 people in a crackdown on a crime syndicate linked to hooligans who support a Belgrade soccer club.<\/p>\n<p>The arrests took place overnight and were the result of a joint operation of Serbian police and the intelligence agency, Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin said in a statement on February 4.<\/p>\n<p>Vulin said the suspects were accused of murder, extortion, and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n<p>Police official Ninoslav Cmolic said that &#8220;the dismantled criminal group was hiding behind&#8221; a group of supporters of the Partizan Belgrade soccer club.<\/p>\n<p>Serbia&#8217;s hard-core soccer fans are notorious for their rowdiness in stadiums, while some have also been accused of using sport as a front for engaging in organized crime.<\/p>\n<p>In recent years, the Balkan country has seen a string of gangland-style killings of members of soccer supporters&#8217; groups.<\/p>\n<p>Partizan fan leader Veljko Belivuk, nicknamed Velja Nevolja (Velja the Trouble) and a close associate, Marko Miljkovic, were among those arrested in the overnight raids.<\/p>\n<p>Belivuk has been linked to criminal activity in the past but reportedly managed to avoid prosecution because of his political connections.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"wsw__h6\">With reporting by AP and AFP<\/h6>\n<\/div>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/2021\/02\/04\/serbia-dismantles-soccer-hooligan-crime-gang\/\">Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BELGRADE \u2014 Serbian authorities say they have arrested 17 people in a crackdown on a crime syndicate linked to hooligans who support a Belgrade soccer club. The arrests\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,75],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26636"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26637,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26636\/revisions\/26637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}