Suspected crime kingpin "to be arrested this year"

BELGRADE Aleksandar Vucic on Monday expressed his expectation that fugitive suspected drug lord Darko Saric would be located and arrested "in the first half of 2013". "I am not known for optimism or giving statements that point to something good in the future, but I think we will finish that job this year or in the first half of this year," the first deputy prime minister told reporters in Belgrade. Suspected crime kingpin "to be arrested this year" He refused to comment on media reports concerning alleged links between Prime Minister Ivica Dacic's former cabinet chief Branko Lazarevic and Saric, but he stressed that there would be no protected individuals. Commenting on Dacic's statement that the information about Lazarevic was in fact "an attack on the government". Vucic said: "I believe Dacic knows what he is saying. He leads the government. The only thing I can say is that everyone, even someone close to me, whoever they are, will answer for their actions if they worked with Saric's clan and committed a crime." "Whoever has been involved in that type of crime and caused so much trouble, not only to our children, but to every surrounding country and Europe as well, will be held responsible for it," Vucic stated. The deputy PM also addressed the situation in the southern town of Nis that has been without police chief for three years now, to say that a new drug gang had been formed there. Asked when a new director of the Serbian police and heads of the police departments in Novi Sad and Nis would be elected, Vucic said it was a question for the interior minister, pointing, however, to the difficult situation in the town. “I fear that the situation is due to certain things that we should not have allowed happen over the past several years and that the new drug ring emerged in this period,” Vucic, who also serves as head of the Security Services Coordination Bureau, told reporters. “Both all those before us and all of us today bear responsibility for this situation and we need to change this situation urgently,” said Vucic. (Tanjug) Tanjug

Suspected crime kingpin "to be arrested this year"

He refused to comment on media reports concerning alleged links between Prime Minister Ivica Dačić's former cabinet chief Branko Lazarević and Šarić, but he stressed that there would be no protected individuals.

Commenting on Dačić's statement that the information about Lazarević was in fact "an attack on the government". Vučić said: "I believe Dačić knows what he is saying. He leads the government. The only thing I can say is that everyone, even someone close to me, whoever they are, will answer for their actions if they worked with Šarić's clan and committed a crime."

"Whoever has been involved in that type of crime and caused so much trouble, not only to our children, but to every surrounding country and Europe as well, will be held responsible for it," Vučić stated.

The deputy PM also addressed the situation in the southern town of Niš that has been without police chief for three years now, to say that a new drug gang had been formed there.

Asked when a new director of the Serbian police and heads of the police departments in Novi Sad and Niš would be elected, Vučić said it was a question for the interior minister, pointing, however, to the difficult situation in the town.

“I fear that the situation is due to certain things that we should not have allowed happen over the past several years and that the new drug ring emerged in this period,” Vučić, who also serves as head of the Security Services Coordination Bureau, told reporters.

“Both all those before us and all of us today bear responsibility for this situation and we need to change this situation urgently,” said Vučić.