Serbia under the shadow of the mafia: The documentary that reveals the massacre of the Belivuk clan

An ordinary house on the outskirts of Belgrade, hidden behind the appearance of a residential building, had been transformed into one of the most notorious centers of torture and executions of the Balkan mafia.

A detailed investigation, based on indictments from the Serbian Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office, reports by OCCRP and the Serbian investigative portal KRIK, reveals how Veljko Belivuk's criminal group operated a "human slaughterhouse" to eliminate rivals.

According to the investigation, the entrance to the torture chamber was hidden in the garage of a house in the Ritopek neighborhood near Belgrade. Behind a secret hatch and a narrow underground corridor, there was a white room with a dark floor and industrial equipment, where members of the criminal group allegedly tortured, killed and dismembered the bodies of their victims.

Investigations show that Belivuk's group, linked to the Montenegrin mafia clan Kavac, used an industrial meat grinder to completely destroy the bodies and material evidence. The remains, according to prosecutors, were dumped in the Danube River, while the victims' clothes and personal belongings were burned.

At the center of this network was Veljko Belivuk, leader of the hooligan group “Principi,” which had emerged from the “Janjica” fan group of the Partizan Belgrade club. Initially known as a leader of hooligans in the stadiums, Belivuk later became a key ally of the Kavac clan in its bloody war with the rival Shkaljari clan.

According to investigative journalist Stevan Dojčinović from KRIK, the war between two mafia clans from Montenegro has caused over 100 murders in the Balkans and has spread to Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia and other countries in the region.

One of the first victims documented in the indictment was Luka Maric, name changed for security reasons, a rival hooligan leader and associate of criminal figure Filip Korać, linked to the Shkaljari clan. According to the prosecution, he was lured by a betrayed friend, kidnapped, taken to Ritopek's house, and then tortured and executed with an axe. Photos of his butchered body were sent as a threat to criminal rivals.

The investigations also include the murders of Zdravko Radojević and Milan Ljepoja, the latter a former member of the notorious Pink Panthers robbery group. According to investigators, he also ended up in the same torture chamber after being lured with the promise of buying an armored vehicle.

The unraveling of this criminal network was made possible thanks to the penetration of the encrypted communication platform Sky ECC by European authorities. This platform, widely used by criminal groups in Europe, offered modified phones with extreme security features and secret communication within disguised applications.

French, Belgian and Dutch authorities managed to penetrate Sky ECC servers and decrypt users' communications. More than a billion messages were intercepted in real time, revealing conversations, murder orders, torture photos, bitcoin transfers for assassination payments and communications between members of the Belivuk group.

In one of the messages published in the indictment, Belivuk – nicknamed “Soprano” – wrote: “I can’t wait to kill him.” In other communications, members of the group described the torture of victims and shared photos of massacred bodies.

After receiving information from French authorities, Serbian police arrested Belivuk and part of his group. They are accused of criminal organization, aggravated murder, drug and arms trafficking, kidnapping and rape.

However, the issue took on an even greater political dimension after the publication of allegations of close ties between the criminal group and Serbian state structures.

According to KRIK reports, communications with senior Serbian gendarmerie and police officials were found on Belivuk's phone. Investigative journalists claim that a senior police officer communicated with Belivuk every day and reported to important figures in the state hierarchy.

The leaked communications mention names such as Dijana Hrkalović, former state secretary at the Serbian Ministry of Interior. According to KRIK, the conversations also mention “the boss” and “the big boss,” which the journalists suspect were referring to the then-Police Minister and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.

Belivuk himself, during his testimony, claimed that his group was organized for the needs of the government and was used to control fan stands, intimidate anti-government protesters, and secure support at pro-government rallies.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić has repeatedly denied any connection with Belivuk and his group, stating that he had never met him personally.

However, critics of the Serbian government claim that the arrest of the group only occurred after international authorities hacked into Sky ECC's communications and exposed the extreme brutality of the criminal organization.

According to Stevan Dojčinović, the problem does not end with Belivuk's arrest.

"The model remains the same. As long as this political system and this way of cooperation between the state and criminal structures exists, nothing will change," he declared.

The investigation raises serious questions about the intertwining of organized crime with state structures in Serbia, while the case of the "house of horrors" in Ritopek continues to be considered one of the biggest criminal scandals in Southeast Europe.

The GeoPost