Belivuk criminal group SKY ECC communication reveals links to Serbian authorities

The trial of Belivuk and Miljković, along with ten alleged associates, began in mid-2022 after multiple delays

Veljko Belivuk and Marko Miljković members of the Kavač criminal clan, shortly before their arrest in Belgrade on February 4, 2021, intended, according to transcripts of their communication via the SKY ECC platform, to contact “the Americans” and hand over compromising information about the Serbian authorities.

The messages show deep frustration with what Belivuk and Miljković perceived as a sudden shift in the authorities’ attitude toward them.

“Get me the Americans, so we can walk over these guys like crossing a shallow stream,” Belivuk wrote in a SKY ECC group chat called “Knights of the Round Table”.

The group was created during a visit by Belivuk and Miljković to Montenegro, where they met with Radoje Zvicer, one of the leaders of the Kavač criminal clan. Two days earlier, Miljković wrote that, because of the changed relationship, they would withdraw their support for Serbia’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

“We’re respected with you, but here these pieces of shit want to lynch us. Vučić won’t get a single vote from us, even if I end up doing 40 years. Do you have a good contact with the Americans who want to bring him down here? I don’t care about politics, but this sick bastard has gone too far,” wrote Miljković.

The same day, Miljković added that the authorities were retaliating because they had refused to support Aleksandar Vučić in upcoming elections.

On January 31, just days before their arrest, Miljković wrote that he and Belivuk would no longer remain in Serbia at the same time: “We’ll rotate. One in Serbia, one outside. Vučić has completely lost it. We’ll collect recordings about their business dealings and see how to place them with the Americans. The media here are completely suffocated.”

According to a Europol report, Belivuk and Miljković arrived in Montenegro on January 17, 2021, to attend a celebration organized by Zvicer. Petar Lazović, then an officer of Montenegro’s National Security Agency, informed Zvicer that Serbian intelligence services were closely monitoring Belivuk and Miljković. Lazović is the son of Zoran Lazović, former head of Montenegro’s police department for combating organized crime.

Europol states that conversations in the “Knights of the Round Table” group covered meetings, celebrations, and planned crimes. It also notes that Belivuk, Miljković, and Zvicer were fully aware of police operations against the rival Škaljari clan and even advised Lazović on how investigations should be conducted.

After Montenegrin investigative outlet Libertas published parts of the Europol report in May 2022, newly appointed Chief Special Prosecutor Vladimir Novović ordered the arrest of Petar Lazović. Zvicer and Milovan Milović fled. Lazović’s predecessor, Milivoje Katnić, had previously found nothing problematic in the Europol findings. Several trials involving members of the Knights of the Round Table group are currently underway before the High Court in Podgorica.

In Serbia, the trial of Belivuk and Miljković, along with ten alleged associates, began in mid-2022 after multiple delays. The indictment, spanning more than 300 pages, charges the group with seven murders, drug trafficking, kidnappings, rape, extortion, and illegal weapons possession.

The group stood out not only for its extreme brutality but also for its extensive use of SKY ECC. The application was used not just for coordination, but to lure victims and send photographs of mutilated bodies to rivals. One message sent by Belivuk alongside a photo of a corpse read: “Look, baby, Mexico in the middle of Belgrade.” Another message, attributed to Miljković, stated: “I only hang out with corpses. It’s strange for me to see a living person.”

Following the arrests on February 4, 2021, senior Serbian officials, including President Vučić and then interior minister Aleksandar Vulin, publicly presented graphic details of the crimes. On multiple occasions, uncensored images of victims’ bodies were shown on national television, including to the families of the murdered.

At a preparatory court hearing in March 2022, Belivuk made a public offer: if all other defendants were released and only, he and Miljković remained in detention, he would testify as a cooperating witness in the cases of the Savamala demolition, the murder of politician Oliver Ivanović, and the death of former official Vladimir Cvijan.

Serbian authorities have never answered key questions: How Belivuk’s group was formed, under whose supervision, and for what purpose?

Neither the government nor the prosecution addressed the fact that Goran Colić, a senior counterintelligence official in the Serbia’s Security and Intelligence Agency (BIA), was elected to the assembly of football club Partizan in 2014 as a supporters’ representative, at a time when the stadium stands were controlled by Belivuk and Aleksandar Stanković, known as Sale “the Mute.” After Stanković was murdered in 2016, Belivuk assumed full control.

Colić, a close associate of former BIA director Bratislav Gašić, later became head of the agency’s Fifth Directorate, responsible for counterintelligence protection of senior government officials.

Another figure, Gendarmerie officer Nenad Vučković, was photographed with Belivuk and Stanković leading chants at football matches. Investigative reporting later revealed that Vučković, Belivuk, and others trained with firearms at a state military shooting range. Surveillance footage and entry records later disappeared.

Court documents show that at least half of the murders attributed to Belivuk’s group were committed while he and Miljković were under active surveillance, including phone tapping, tracking, and covert recording. Six of Belivuk’s mobile phones were monitored.

In communications extracted from Belivuk’s phone during proceedings against former Interior Ministry official Dijana Hrkalović, he exchanged messages with police officers and BIA agents. One message stated: “She knows. The boss knows. The main boss knows. But every day they tell me to keep you under control.”

Names such as Andrej, the minister, and Nebojša were also mentioned. While police identified “D” as Hrkalović, the identities of “the boss” and “the main boss” were never established.

Belivuk later claimed before prosecutors that he met President Vučić on multiple occasions and provided services to the authorities, including preventing anti-government chants at football matches, suppressing fan protests, and intimidating political opponents. Miljković claimed to have met with then interior minister Vulin. Both Vučić and Vulin denied these allegations.

Equally unexplained are the events immediately preceding the arrests. Despite being under surveillance, Belivuk and Miljković were allowed to leave Serbia on January 17, 2021, and travel to Montenegro. They returned on January 29, were questioned at the airport, released, and arrested only days later, on February 4.

The unanswered questions remain central: How a group of this power emerged, how it operated for years under surveillance, and why its ties to state institutions were never fully investigated?