Senior Serbian official claims opposition leaders linked to drug traffickers

The ministry State Secretary showed photographs which she said show Djilas in front of the Belgrade city jail, bringing food to Milan Dabovic who was arrested after a large amount of cocaine was found in his car. Djilas was romantically involved with Dabovic’s sister at the time of the arrest.  

Popovic Ivkovic also asked whether it is true that opposition leader Bosko Obradovic was a close friend of a drug dealer she identified by the nickname Tocilo.  

The video clips on her Twitter account showed just one microphone in front of her which is not customary for media conferences. No clips of possible questions were published.  

https://twitter.com/ivkovic_biljana/status/1204445671769681923

Reacting to her claims, Djilas and Obradovic (founders of the oppostion Alliance for Serbia or SzS) issued a joint statement, saying that Popovic Ivkovic’s claims were the latest in a series of lies “intended to deceive the public in order to hide” scandals.  

Djilas and Obradovic asked in their statement how they could tell the public that Popovic Ivkovic and Vucic were deceiving them by claiming they were involved with drug traffickers even though they both know that isn’t true. “We are in the same situation as anyone who talks about the organized crime group called the Serbian Progressive Party,” they said.  

The statement said that the pro-regime TV Pink interrupted its regular programming at 09:55 on Tuesday evening to air a statement by President Aleksandar Vucic who said that photographs had appeared of Djilas with a known drug dealer and added that Obradovic and Djilas are persecuting police office Goran Papic who arrested the drug dealer on the photograph with Djilas.  

Vucic told TV Pink in Athens on Tuesday evening that he was shocked by the photograph of Djilas with a known drug dealer. “This is not about an addict, they have a lot of drug addicts, in the leaderships of their parties and at the head of their parties,” he said adding that he has proof of his claims.