As Colombia’s borders closed down during the COVID-19 pandemic, Serbian Dejan Stanimirović became an unexpected houseguest of Jose Vicente Rivera Mendoza, an alleged drug boss.
The visit ended in a night of chaos and bloodshed on March 31, 2020, that killed them both and left lingering suspicions about why Stanimirović had visited Rivera in the first place.
Now, KRIK has uncovered information that raises new questions about Stanimirović’s connections not only to Colombian drug dealers, but to a key member of the Serbian president’s inner circle.
It turns out that Stanimirović was a member of a Balkan drug trafficking gang, according to a European police official who spoke with KRIK.
He was also the co-owner of a telecommunications company along with Nikola Petrović, a powerful Serbian businessman and the so-called “best man” of President Aleksandar Vučić.
Petrović belongs to a small circle of people trusted by the president, making him one of the most powerful people in Serbia. The discovery of the corporate partnership between Petrović and Stanimirović, which lasted from 2004 to 2010, is significant in this context, especially since journalists have previously uncovered other ties between Petrović and figures linked to organized crime.
