Third murder in Barcelona in six months: Balkan clans plaguing the city
A Serbian citizen has been shot dead in Barcelona in what constitutes the third crime linked to the Kotor clans in barely half a year, plunging the Catalan capital into a spiral of violence tied to drug trafficking.
Third murder in Barcelona in six months: Balkan clans plaguing the city
On Sunday night, a new homicide was registered in Barcelona that authorities link to the war between criminal organisations from the Balkans. A man of Serbian nationality lost his life after receiving several gunshot wounds in the interior courtyard of a residential building in the Barcelona district, becoming the third fatal victim of this conflict in the Catalan capital during the last six months.
The incident took place around nine in the evening. According to eyewitness accounts given to investigators, an individual of athletic build dressed in dark clothing approached the victim from behind and discharged a burst of projectiles at him. The attacker fled the scene immediately afterwards. Despite the efforts of medical services that arrived at the scene, the man died on the spot. The Mossos d'Esquadra have kept the investigation open and have not yet made an arrest of the alleged perpetrator.
This crime is part of an escalation of violence that has the city of Barcelona in its grip. Last April, Krsto Vujović, identified as a high-ranking member of the Škaljarski clan, was shot whilst dining with his spouse and young son in a restaurant. The wounds he sustained proved fatal and he died hours later in a hospital. Vujović was wanted by Montenegrin justice, which charged him with leading a criminal gang and his participation in the murder of Šćepan Roganović in Herceg Novi in 2020, as well as in the planning of the homicide of Nemanja Zurovec, alleged member of the rival Kavaški clan.
At the end of last year, in December, another individual linked to the same criminal faction was executed following the same modus operandi. It was a 33-year-old man from Podgorica, identified as M. M., who was approached from behind by an assassin and shot three times before fleeing. This subject had criminal records in several countries: in February 2020 he was arrested in a famous hotel in Belgrade along with three accomplices and sentenced to two years in prison. His name appeared for the first time in police records in 2015, when the Guardia Civil arrested him in Valencia at just 23 years old for crimes related to cocaine trafficking. In that operation he was linked to Goran Radoman, whose murder that same year was classified as the first crime in the war between the Kotor clans.
The bloody struggle between the Škaljarski faction and the Kavaški clan, both originating from the Montenegrin city of Kotor, has crossed the borders of the Balkans and turned Barcelona into one of their scenes of confrontation. The situation has provoked the indignation of residents, who have called for mobilisations to demand that municipal authorities take firm measures against the insecurity generated by the presence of these mafia networks dedicated to international drug trafficking.
According to the N1.hr portal, citing police sources, the violence attributed to these criminal structures has reached levels that concern both the public and the security forces, who are working to identify and dismantle the operational cells deployed in Spanish territory.
Source: Google News SI — Crime (sl)