Skaljar Clan Member Extradited to Montenegro Under Heavy Guard

Vuk Lakicevic, a senior member of the Skaljari clan, has been extradited from Croatia to Montenegro and escorted under heavy guard. The handover took place at a border crossing, and the suspect was immediately turned over to the competent prosecutor’s office.

Lakicevic was arrested in Croatia on a red Interpol notice issued by the High Court in Podgorica. The notice was requested to secure his presence in criminal proceedings under way against him in Montenegro. According to investigators, his location and arrest were the result of international police cooperation.

Prosecutors say the suspect is charged with forming a criminal organization and with aggravated murder allegedly committed as an accomplice. These are among the most serious offenses in Montenegrin law, and the case is being handled by the special prosecutor’s office for organized crime. The guilt of none of the accused has been established by a final court ruling.

How is Lakicevic linked to organized crime cases?

Investigators connect Vuk Lakicevic to the abduction and killing of Ilija Krstic, a young man from Leskovac. Krstic’s body was found walled up in a water reservoir inside a fortress in Kotor, in a discovery that shook the wider region. That case has for years ranked among the gravest in the investigations targeting the Skaljari clan.

According to unofficial information, the suspect is the half-brother of a man currently imprisoned in Ukraine over an attempt to kill Radoje Zvicer, the leader of the rival Kavac clan. That family tie places Lakicevic at the very core of the conflict between the two warring criminal groups, whose feud has claimed numerous lives in Montenegro and beyond in recent years.

The Skaljari and Kavac clans were once a single group from Kotor that split apart after a large shipment of cocaine went missing. Since that rupture, the two sides have waged a settling of scores that spread from Montenegro across the region, with some killings carried out in Western Europe and South America. Arrests like this one are part of a broader effort by several states to dismantle the logistics and leadership of both organizations.

What comes next after the extradition?

Following the handover, Lakicevic was turned over to the special state prosecutor’s office, which will conduct the proceedings. In line with standard procedure in such cases, he is expected to be placed in custody while the investigation and the drafting of the indictment continue.

For Montenegro’s judiciary, this extradition marks another step in a series of proceedings against members of both clans, many of whom have spent years hiding abroad. Every new arrest also raises the question of how willing the accused will be to testify about the inner workings of the organization, which could shed light on other unsolved cases.

Whether the trials against the Skaljari and Kavac clans will truly manage to halt the bloody feud that has raged for years remains a question only a courtroom can answer. What do you think, is international police cooperation finally catching up with the leaders of organized crime?