During the period that started with the Yugoslav Wars and ended with the assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in March 2003 , connections between the Serbian Mafia and the government were obvious and corruption was rampant in most branches of the state , from border patrols to law-enforcement agencies . On 12 March 2003 , Đinđić was assassinated by former Special Operations Unit member Zvezdan Jovanović . The government then set in motion a major operation against organized crime codenamed Operation Sabre , which led to more than 10,000 arrests . The revenue of New Belgrade malls , locations frequented by gangsters , plummeted by more than 20 % after the Operation . Milan Sarajlić , the Deputy State Prosecutor of Serbia , was arrested and confessed to being on the payroll of the Zemun clan . The Red Berets were dissolved on 23 March 2003 . Spasojević and Luković were killed by the police in front of their hiding place in the village of Meljak near Belgrade , on 27 March . The official explanation has been that both were killed in a shootout with the police , but this has been disputed by many , including the famous Serbian lawyer Toma Fila . The villa in Šilerova street was demolished
assassinated
Assassination of Zoran Đinđić
Zemun Clan