Grisly Murders, Political Cover: A Serbian Gang’s Brutal Murders, Sheltered by the State

Serbian crime gang’s slaughterhouse murders expose a web of brutality and state complicity, with political allies shielding organised crime from justice in Belgrade.

In an unremarkable house on the outskirts of Belgrade, Serbian authorities uncovered a nightmarish scene in 2021. It was here that the Principi, a violent criminal group, had turned a simple suburban home into a "slaughterhouse." Behind a hidden door, police discovered an industrial meat grinder that had been used to dispose of the human remains of their victims. This was no ordinary organized crime story. According to the OCCRP, the Principi’s victims were tortured, decapitated, and dismembered before being reduced to nothing more than bags of flesh, later dumped into the Danube River. But the story doesn’t end with brutality. These acts were both gruesome crime and political scandal, shrouded by a protection racket that reached deep into the Serbian government.

The house in the Belgrade suburbs known as "the Slaughterhouse," where the Principi killed their victims. [© OCCRP]

Veljko Belivuk, the gang’s leader, is not an anonymous thug. His group, Principi, is an influential faction amo…