{"id":34730,"date":"2020-09-02T11:42:24","date_gmt":"2020-09-02T09:42:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/?p=34730"},"modified":"2020-09-02T11:42:26","modified_gmt":"2020-09-02T09:42:26","slug":"zoran-jaksics-last-hurrah-in-peru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.krik.rs\/en\/zoran-jaksics-last-hurrah-in-peru\/","title":{"rendered":"Zoran Jaksi\u0107\u2019s Last Hurrah in Peru"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>Pavla Holcov\u00e1 and Stevan Doj\u010dinovi\u0107<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world got a little smaller on July 17, 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That evening, television news reports in Peru and in Serbia were covering the very same story: A global drug trafficker who had switched among 40 identities to escape justice for years had finally been caught.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The footage of the arrest in northern Peru was dramatic. Zoran Mihajlovi\u0107 Jaksi\u0107, the \u201cright hand\u201d of the world-spanning Group America gang, tried to hide his face from TV and police cameras. Four local policemen had to hold him to keep him from running. It was the grand finale of a year-long police operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using thousands of pages of court files and interviews with prosecutors, policemen, and intelligence agents, KRIK, OCCRP and its Prague-based member center Investigace.cz<\/a> were able to reconstruct Jaksi\u0107\u2019s role in the organized crime group, his ties to Peruvian drug families, and the police work that finally brought him down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When he first came into view, those Peruvian investigators weren\u2019t even looking for him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunting for Swallows<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early 2016, Peruvian police were already deep into a long-running operation targeting a group of home-grown drug traffickers known as Golondrinas (\u201cSwallows\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The name of the organization was derived from its daring use of small planes to transport cocaine to Brazil for onward shipment. It was thought to be a regional operation run by a few local families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had no idea such a big player was involved,\u201d a police official told OCCRP. \u201cWe don\u2019t have players like him in Peru. He is the Champions League.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Group America\u2019s foothold in the country changed the very structure of its drug business. Until Group America, Peru\u2019s cocaine trade was dominated by small families, not international businesses or cartels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeruvian criminals just produce cocaine, so they are the ones who earn the least in the whole chain,\u2019\u2019 said the investigator, speaking on condition of anonymity for his own safety. \u201cPeruvians never established international networks and contacts.That\u2019s why they need people like Jaksi\u0107, who make it possible for Peruvian cocaine to be sold in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Big Man in Lima<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation into the Golondrinas focused on three families: Rojas Vilcatoma, Medina Gavil\u00e1n, and Soto Cordova.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The families bought cocaine from coca farmers, packed it in cheap bags and simply drove it to Lima for wholesalers to take it out of the country. In 2016, their joint sales were coordinated from Lima\u2019s Lurigancho Prison by Jorge \u201cJota\u201d Medina Gavil\u00e1n, who was serving time on a drug charge but operating through his brother, Fernando.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jota didn\u2019t know that the police were listening in to his family calls. During one of those calls, they heard him tell Fernando, \u201cThere is a stranger and he wants to buy. You will recognize him by his height. He is very tall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaksi\u0107\u2019s introduction to the three families had come through H\u00e9ctor Soto Cordova, a Peruvian drug trafficker the Serbian had met while serving a five-year prison sentence following a 1998 drug trafficking arrest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators later overheard other two drug dealers talking about Jaksi\u0107, then had no problem picking him out of the crowd in a Starbucks coffee shop in February 2016. At more than two meters tall, bald and pasty white, he didn\u2019t blend in with Peruvians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His daily routine also made for easy surveillance: From his room at the Lima\u2019s Caminos del Inca apartment hotel he habitually went to the gym, then to a restaurant and back to the hotel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understanding his plans and listening in on his calls was much harder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaksi\u0107 used public phones and encrypted messaging systems on his mobile phone so the police couldn\u2019t intercept his calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n