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Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

@OCCRP

Sep 1, 2020 • 11 tweets • 5 min read • Read on X

NEW: Meet #GroupAmerica, one of the most pervasive and violent drug-trafficking gangs you’ve never heard of.

Some say its name stems from rumored ties between the gang's leaders and the US government — maybe even the CIA. 1/
occrp.org/en/group-ameri…

In the 1980s, a Serb took control of the Westies, a New York Irish-American gang that became Group America.

Decades later, police around the world are impressed by the gang's global scope — and stunned that it remains active. 2/
occrp.org/en/group-ameri…

Unlike the cartels that control the whole cocaine supply chain, Group America specializes in being the middleman between sellers in Europe and producers in South America — where the gang’s second-in-command may be in prison for life. 3/
occrp.org/en/group-ameri…

@pafak

OCCRP journalist Pavla Holcová (@pafak) had to pose as a prostitute to interview this notorious gangster in Peruvian prison.

Read her first-hand account of the conversation. 4/
occrp.org/en/group-ameri…

As the founder and editor of @investigacecz, our Czech member center, Holcová also investigated Group America’s influence in Slovakia — a coveted EU jurisdiction for traffickers in part because of lax residency laws. 5/
occrp.org/en/group-ameri…

Group America has operations in several countries, but much of its money is invested in Serbia, the gang’s center of operations since the fall of Yugoslavia. 6/ occrp.org/en/group-ameri…

@StevanOCCRP

But Group America’s influence in Serbia extends beyond drug money investments.

Its members were linked to acts of terrorism and assassinations against reformist politicians after the ouster of Slobodan Milošević.

Story reported by @StevanOCCRP 7/ occrp.org/en/group-ameri…

As Group America’s second-in-command sits in Peruvian prison, its leader continues to live comfortably in Queens, NY despite a drug trafficking indictment that has languished since 2003.

Federal officials declined comment on the unusual case. 8/

Despite his criminal reputation in Europe, Group America's leader Mileta Miljanić lives in the open in New York and in Serbia.

Here he is with Serbia’s foreign minister during a 2016 televised event in Manhattan. 9/

More than one senior police source has attributed Group America’s success to ties with security and intelligence agencies.

Our reporting indicates that the gang may indeed have an "in" with the U.S. government. 10/

From terrorism in Belgrade to cocaine-trafficking on four continents.

Use this timeline for a tick-tock into Group America’s decades-long history of organized crime, which starts in New York in the 1970s. 11/
occrp.org/en/group-ameri…

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