Balkan drug lord Dragoslav Kosmajac was arrested in Belgrade early on Sunday.



Serbia’s Interior Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic announced at an extraordinary press conference that 61-year-old Kosmajac and seven of his accomplices had been arrested in a police operation, adding that they would remain in custody for a period of up to 48 hours.



He specified that four had been arrested in Sremska Mitrovica and the others in Belgrade.



Stefanovic, as cited by Serbian broadcaster RTS, said that the arrests had been made after four months of intense work.

He made clear that the police operation had been preceded by four months of intense work.



Kosmajac is suspected of committing a number of offenses, including tax evasion, incitement to abuse of office, fraud, unlawful occupation of land acquired through forged documents, according to local police.



His accomplices, aged 37 to 64, were arrested on suspicion of committing abuse of office, abetting abuse of office, document forgery, and fraud.



Kosmajac is believed to be connected to international drug traffickers in South America, from where he is believed to have organized the delivery of large shipments of cocaine to Europe.



Kosmajac is also believed to have organized a cocaine smuggling channel from Turkey, Bulgaria, and Macedonia via Serbia and Montenergo to Western Europe.