Two 'Vracarci' Suspects Arrested With Canister in Vracar
Police and intelligence officers arrested two suspected members of the 'Vracarci' gang as they allegedly tried to set fire to a bar in Vracar, carrying a canister of flammable liquid.
Officers of the Ministry of Interior, working with the Security Intelligence Agency and Belgrade’s First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, arrested two men this morning suspected of belonging to the criminal gang known as “Vracarci.” According to a statement from the Interior Ministry, the suspects are Z. J., born in 1974 and from Kostolac, and A. R., born in 2005 and from the outskirts of Belgrade.
Both men are charged with causing general danger and with making or acquiring weapons and devices intended for committing a criminal offense. The Interior Ministry’s statement lists their birth years, while Telegraf and Informer, citing the same information, give their ages as 52 and 21, a different way of stating the same fact.
What is suspected to have happened
According to the Interior Ministry, the two men smashed the glass door of a bar in Vracar with a rock this morning. Police suspect they intended to get inside and set the place on fire with a flammable liquid. Officers stopped them and arrested them on the spot. At the time of the arrest, the suspects were carrying a plastic canister filled with flammable liquid.
Neither the name of the bar nor the exact street where the arrest took place has been disclosed, either in the Interior Ministry’s statement or in media reports so far.
Telegraf, citing footage of the arrest released by the Interior Ministry, reports that one of the suspects resisted arrest by kicking an officer of the Criminal Police Directorate, prompting three police officers to bring him to the ground.
On the order of Belgrade’s First Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office, the suspects have been detained for up to 48 hours. Once that period expires, they will be brought before the prosecutor’s office along with a criminal complaint, which will decide how the case proceeds.
Sixth day after the Usce arrest
Today’s operation comes just six days after three members of the same group were arrested. According to Informer, officers from the Service for Combating Organized Crime and the Security Intelligence Agency arrested three suspects on September 9 at the Usce shopping center for allegedly belonging to the “Vracarci” group, during a handover of marked cash worth 20,000 euros believed to have been extorted earlier from victim V. P.
Two operations a week apart show that the Interior Ministry and the Security Intelligence Agency are continuing to work on exposing the activities of a group linked to Vracar.
Under the presumption of innocence, the suspects are considered innocent until a final verdict, and a court will decide on their guilt.
