KRIK reports that energy deals feature prominently in encrypted messages between a drug trafficker and his associates, including a pro-government businessman.
A member of a Serbian organized crime group was striking deals with a businessman close to the country’s ruling party even as he allegedly coordinated international cocaine shipments, according to an investigation by KRIK.
Information about convicted drug trafficker Miloš Pandrc, and his connections to Serbia’s economic and political elite, is included in a police report from an investigation into Balkan organized crime that was obtained by journalists.
KRIK, which is an OCCRP member center in Serbia, also obtained text messages between Pandrc and his contacts. The communications were sent over Sky ECC, an encrypted messaging app sold to criminals around the world.
The police report and encrypted messages expose rifts between rival groups of businessmen and criminals in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city. The factions appear to have been competing for the largesse of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
The messages include conversations in 2020 between Pandrc and Dragoljub Zbiljić, a businessman close to the SNS. In their exchanges, Zbiljić shared screenshots of text messages between himself and Miloš Vučević, who was then mayor of Novi Sad.
Vučević became Serbia’s prime minister in 2024. He resigned on Tuesday following months of anti-government protests sparked by the deadly collapse of a section of the Novi Sad railway station.
Back in 2020, Vučević was regularly sharing updates with Zbiljić about internal SNS developments. Zbiljić forwarded some of these messages to Pandrc.
The police report and encrypted messages reveal details of Zbiljić’s acquisition of Elektromontaža, a company that handles lucrative state energy projects. Pandrc allegedly benefitted from the deal too.
“Pandrc says he arranged an €800,000 ($946,000) deal with Elektromontaža,” the police report states, adding that “he plans to increase it to €100 million ($118 million) annually starting next year.”
Journalists were unable to confirm whether Pandrc did indeed receive any of those funds. Pandrc did not answer his phone, and attempts to reach him via calls to his family and his company were unsuccessful.
Neither Vučević nor the Serbian government responded to requests for comment.
Zbiljić declined to answer questions, but suggested in an email that KRIK journalists “consult a serious psychiatrist.”
While Pandrc was chatting with Zbiljić and others in 2020, he was also messaging cocaine traffickers over the encrypted Sky ECC app.
"It is evident that Pandrc Miloš has an interest in the international trade of narcotics,” police alleged in their report, which cites his communications to several other Sky ECC users.
Pandrc was communicating with them “in order to facilitate an agreement related to the transportation of a large quantity of the narcotic drug cocaine from Brazil to Germany," police alleged.
Credit: Miloš PandrcMiloš Pandrc in an image he sent on the Sky ECC messaging app.
Before exchanging those messages, Pandrc had done time for drug dealing after pleading guilty in 2012 as part of a case against major Serbian trafficker Darko Šarić, and his group.
The police report and encrypted messages suggest that Pandrc was not the only criminal involved with businessmen close to the SNS. Pandrc’s messages also indicate that the Elektromontaža deal sparked tension with a rival faction.
According to Pandrc, the rival group included Goran Kovačević Goranac, who was convicted on drug charges and is currently on trial for alleged kidnapping, as well as Zvonko Veselinović and Nikola Petrović.
Petrović is the godfather of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, and headed a large state-owned electricity distribution company. He later went into the private sector and earned millions of euros in state energy contracts.
Veselinović is a businessman from Kosovo who is close to Petrović, and has prospered under the ruling party, in part by obtaining state contracts. Both the U.K. and U.S. have sanctioned Veselinović for alleged corruption.
Police and SNS sources confirmed to KRIK that Veselinović is also known as Ćelavi, a name that appears repeatedly in the encrypted chats.
“Pandrc mentions that Ćelavi will now attack ‘Z’ (Zbiljić) because he is too strong, as all energy projects go through him,” says the police report.
Veselinović declined to answer questions from journalists, and told them via his lawyer to "seek professional psychiatric help.” Goranac didn’t respond to phone calls and questions sent to his mobile number.
Petrović declined to answer questions, and invited journalists to “feel free to never call me again."
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