Overview

• Prosecutors accuse a 34-year-old Serbian national of orchestrating a February 2020 assassination attempt on a rival gang member in Berlin’s Charlottenburg district.
• A hired gunman opened fire in Charlottenburg but the target survived and was later killed by a car bomb in Montenegro two weeks after the Berlin attack.
• German authorities and Europol identify the defendant as a Balkan Cartel leader suspected of involvement in eight murders across Austria, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.
• He was arrested in Barcelona on October 18, 2024, after a joint investigation by the Federal Criminal Police Office and extradited to Germany in mid-March 2025.
• The ongoing trial in Berlin’s regional court underscores the complexity of pursuing transnational organized crime figures through European law enforcement cooperation.