As massive sports complexes, residential blocks, and exhibition halls reshape the suburb of Surčin for the highly anticipated EXPO 2027, a months-long investigation by the Center for Investigative Journalism of Serbia (CINS) has blown the lid off the project’s deep financial opacity.
Despite official government resistance to releasing a master list of contractors, CINS successfully compiled an expansive database of over 200 companies serving as suppliers, constructors, and subcontractors. The findings expose a shadow network of infrastructure contracts flowing directly into the hands of organized crime families, convicted murderers, international jewel thieves, and political cronies tightly bound to President Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
1. Makiš Beton: The Presidential Inner Circle and the Arkan Case
The most financially lucrative revelation centers on Makiš Beton, a concrete production firm established in mid-2024, precisely one year after Belgrade won the EXPO bid. Between 2024 and 2025, the company’s revenues skyrocketed seven-fold to 2.1 billion dinars (~$19.5 million)—with a staggering 70% of its entire income derived exclusively from EXPO construction sites.
The Makiš Beton Ownership Split:
========================================================================
Marijana Đerić Mandreš (60%) --> Sister of Aleksandar Vidojević ("Aca Rošavi"),
an ultra leader tied to the SNS and Danilo Vučić.
Vujadin Krstić (40%) --> Convicted felon who aided and embedded the assassin
of Željko Ražnatović "Arkan".
========================================================================
The majority stakeholder (60%) is Marijana Đerić Mandreš, whose brother is notorious Partizan hooligan leader Aleksandar Vidojević (known as “Aca Rošavi”). Vidojević has been publicly photographed on multiple occasions carousing with the President’s son, Danilo Vučić, and was recently named by jailed cross-border butcher Veljko Belivuk as the primary intermediary between the murderous “Ritopek clan” and the top echelons of the state.
The remaining 40% is held by Vujadin Krstić, a former reserve policeman who was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for hiding the blood-soaked armor and organizing clandestine medical aid for Dobrosav Gavrić—the hitman who assassinated paramilitary commander Željko Ražnatović “Arkan” in 2000.
2. NM Kop: The Son of Zemun Clan’s “Bagzi” Caught in Arson Feud
Nemanja Milenković, the owner of the sand excavation firm NM Kop, is the son of Dejan Milenković “Bagzi”—the infamous state-witness-turned-survivor from the Surčin and Zemun drug cartels who drove the truck that attempted to intercept and assassinate Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in 2003.
Though Nemanja initially denied working on EXPO, judicial records obtained by CINS from the Third Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office reveal that his entire industrial fleet was deployed to Surčin.
- The Eco-Violation: In early 2025, state mining inspectors caught NM Kop illegally strip-mining sand outside its licensed borders, leaving behind a massive artificial lake.
- The Competition War: Milenković claims he was framed by “ghost informants,” pointing the finger at his primary EXPO sand competitor: PZP Valjevo.
3. PZP Valjevo: The Legacy of “Čume” and the Surčin Clan
Providing sand for the core EXPO road networks is PZP Valjevo, a heavy infrastructure firm that has spent two decades absorbing state construction budgets.
The company is owned by Dušan Vasović, famously known across Serbia as the personal attorney of Ljubiša Buha “Čume”, the original leader of the multi-million dollar Surčin narcotics group. While Vasović maintains the firm only performs “minor asphalt work” via third parties, Buha’s former wife, Ivana Tulović, previously testified that Čume remains the hidden, ultimate beneficiary of PZP Valjevo through complex front operations.
4. C&LC Kameni Agregati: The Pink Panther Connection
The stone quarrying for the highly publicized National Pavilion inside the EXPO complex is being fueled by C&LC Kameni Agregati.
The sole owner of the enterprise is Predrag Lovrić, an international fugitive who was convicted in absentia by a court in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, in late 2022. Lovrić was handed a three-year prison sentence for his role as an active member of the global Pink Panther syndicate, specializing in high-end jewelry heists across Western Europe.
5. CAP 1 ALCZ: Paid Cleansing by a Convicted Murderer
For the raw manual labor of site clearing and debris removal, the state infrastructure apparatus relies on CAP 1 ALCZ, a sole proprietorship registered in June 2025.
EXPO 2027 Special Contract Profiles:
========================================================================
Firm: CAP 1 ALCZ | Owner: Đorđe Prelić (Former "Alkatraz" hooligan boss)
Execution Specialty | Cleared site debris via 6 state invoices worth 1.2M RSD.
Criminal Record | Served 10 years for the brutal 2009 murder of Brice Taton.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firm: Betonjerka Čačak | Backed by: Milenko Kostić (VP of FK Crvena Zvezda / Auto Čačak)
Execution Specialty | Subcontracted by Power China to supply concrete planters/pipes.
Political Tie | Ex-JUL member; scored 954M RSD in secretive MUP vehicle deals.
========================================================================
The firm is owned by Đorđe Prelić, the former leader of the violent Partizan faction Alkatraz. Prelić was heavily prosecuted and sentenced to prison for organizing the brutal 2009 beating and murder of French football fan Brice Taton, who was thrown off a flight of stairs in downtown Belgrade. Prelić admitted to CINS that he was paid over 1.2 million dinars across six state invoices, boasting that as an independent entrepreneur, he is under no legal obligation to background-check or register the personnel he brings onto the high-security state site.
6. Betonjerka Čačak: Institutional Capture and Luxury Fleet Deals
Building the extensive landscape architecture and concrete horticulture networks for EXPO is Betonjerka Čačak, which was brought into the project via a secretive sub-deal by the state-run conglomerate Power China.
Behind this enterprise sits Milenko Kostić, a wealthy tycoon, Vice President of the Board of FK Crvena Zvezda, and owner of Auto Čačak (Serbia’s exclusive importer of Škoda vehicles). Kostić, a former member of Mirjana Marković’s Yugoslav Left (JUL), has a decades-long history of converting political access into massive state procurements. In 2019 alone, Kostić’s companies secured an estimated 954 million dinars in classified, non-transparent vehicle supply contracts for the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP).
The CINS Investigative Takeaway: The findings confirm that while the Serbian government promotes EXPO 2027 as a clean, forward-looking triumph of national modernization, the financial underbelly of the project functions as an unregulated trough. Millions of euros in public funds are being funneled directly into an alliance of underground figures, soccer hooligans, and state-favored oligarchs who operate with total legal immunity.
