Serbian Drug Mafia Chieftan Rubbed Out in Istanbul

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 10 September 2022)

     Was hoping to catch Scorsese's eye for his next film.

Jovan Vukotiç, the leader of the Serbian drug mafia gang Skaljari,

was driving with his wife and children in the Mecidiyeköy section of 

Şişli, Istanbul, the day before yesterday when two people on a motorcycle 

came alongside his car and shot Vukotiç five times.  The assailants fled 

and Vukotiç died from his wounds. 

Vukotiç, sought by Interpol with a red bulletin for drug dealing, was 

arrested in Antalya in 2018 and deported. He spent 15 months in prison

in Serbia and upon his release he fled to Istanbul with a fake ID. 

Vukotiç's Skaljari gang was at odds with another Serbian gang, the 

Kavaka group.  The two gangs were engaged in an ongoing battle over 

300 kilograms of  cocaine that disappeared in the Spanish port of 

Valencia in 2014. 

There's no such thing as bad publicity but you gotta stay

alive to be a movie star.