Ivančić charged in Liberia: one month after cocaine conviction, entered Armageddon operation
Nikola Ivančić, convicted in the Domald operation, appeared on a Liberian indictment together with the former vice-president of that country. Already in June 2019, he became involved in a new cocaine channel.
Convicted in Zagreb, charged in Monrovia: who is Nikola Ivančić
Just one month after Zagreb County Court handed down a sentence in May 2019 for cocaine smuggling, Nikola Ivančić (47) was already communicating via encrypted SKY network about new drug shipments from Colombia — as emerges from the USKOK indictment in the Armageddon operation, with the entire case described in detail by Večernji list.
Now Ivančić's name has appeared on a Liberian prosecutor's indictment. His co-defendant is Jewel Howard-Taylor, the former vice-president of the West African state, who held that office from 2018 to 2024. She is charged with drug trafficking and money laundering and was arrested while attempting to leave the country. Besides her and Ivančić, also charged is Mihovil Vrbovac, whom Liberian media — Liberian Investigator and Africanews — state is also a Croatian citizen, and Ukrainian national Tara Zaderijeko. Ivančić, Vrbovac and Zaderijeko are not available to Liberian authorities; according to Liberian media reports, Ivančić is believed to currently reside in Dubai.
Domald operation: 38 kilograms of cocaine in trainers and shampoos
Ivančić's name is well known to Croatian police and the judiciary. In the Domald operation, he was charged with organising and leading a criminal association from 2005 to 15 January 2009 in Poreč, Zagreb and Split, which smuggled approximately 38 kilograms of cocaine valued at just under one million euros from Peru, Argentina and Ecuador into Croatia and Europe. The drug was sent via DHL parcels, hidden in trainers and shampoos, and they also used the technique of soaking paper with cocaine from which they subsequently extracted it.
The proceedings were restarted several times for various reasons — USKOK originally filed the indictment before the court in Rijeka, but Ivančić and two other defendants were ultimately tried in Zagreb. The first-instance sentence was delivered in May 2019: three years and five months in prison and an obligation to repay two million kuna. Since he was in pre-trial detention from 15 January 2009 to 18 June 2012, that period of detention fully covered the imposed sentence. Whether he repaid the money is unknown.
In the judgment's reasoning, the court stated that it believed the maximum period in pre-trial detention "affected Ivančić and that he had changed" — at that time there was no evidence that he was committing new criminal offences.
Armageddon: one and a half tonnes of cocaine, SKY messages, Liberian connection
However, already in June 2019 — as shown by analysis of SKY communications — Ivančić became involved in a new business. In April 2026, USKOK charged 20 people led by Kristijan Palić in the Armageddon operation with cocaine smuggling. Palić, arrested in 2023 in the Cartel 2 operation in Istanbul, is charged with organising a hierarchical criminal network from October 2019 to April 2021 in Croatia, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and numerous other countries — with Ivančić as one of its key members.
Palić's group planned to smuggle approximately 6.5 tonnes of cocaine valued at 198 million euros. Most shipments were discovered, so only 500 kilograms, valued at around 15 million euros, were successfully smuggled. As for cannabis, they were somewhat more successful: of the planned 2.5 tonnes valued at 4.7 million euros, they smuggled 1.7 tonnes sold to larger buyers in Croatia for around two million euros.
Details were uncovered following decryption of the SKY platform. Ivančić, according to the indictment, used multiple identities, and investigators identified him because he used the dates of birth of people close to him in PINs. Initial SKY messages contained family news — births of children, arrivals in Croatia, stays on the coast — and then communication shifted to coordinating business.
"Brother, you only put those who speak our language"
According to USKOK, Ivančić in January 2020 instructed one of the co-defendants to meet with a person in the Dominican Republic to whom he had previously handed an advance for a tonne of cocaine. The meeting was supposed to agree on a place for handover in the Atlantic.
"This one says he can only do Surinam and that part of Africa. That takes time to arrange and it's much more expensive. He can't go where he said before in Colombia. So we need to see how to arrange it so it works for everyone and goes smoothly," reads one of the messages exchanged within the SKY group following that meeting.
Ivančić also showed distrust towards certain network members — he excluded one with the comment: "Brother, you only put those who speak our language." In later communications he arranges a fishing vessel to transport one to one and a half tonnes of cocaine, with a route to the Caribbean, then to Spain, at a price of 3,000 euros per kilogram. The COVID-19 pandemic introduced a three-month halt to these plans, but business subsequently resumed.
According to USKOK's construction of the indictment, Ivančić functioned as a coordinator between Colombian cocaine suppliers and Palić, who organised smuggling into Europe.
Ivančić between Dubai, Italy and Liberia
According to court documents, Ivančić's address is in the United Arab Emirates — Dubai. Over recent years he has also stayed in Italy, and Liberian media estimate that he currently remains in Dubai, beyond the reach of both Liberian and Croatian authorities.
What role he played in the case involving Liberia's former vice-president remains to be clarified. Ivančić was therefore twice targeted by USKOK in Croatia — once as the leader of an association, a second time as a coordinator in an international network — and now his name has appeared in West Africa. The court that in 2019 concluded that he had "changed" had no insight into the SKY messages which were already being created at that time.
Source: Večernji list