A brazen, mafia-style execution inside a luxury Belgrade restaurant has triggered a massive political and judicial crisis in Serbia, exposing deep, structural ties connecting the criminal underworld to the highest echelons of the state security apparatus.
The execution of notorious gangster Aleksandar Nešović—who famously escaped a Swiss prison decades ago—has dominated public debate following revelations that the city’s top police official orchestrated and sat through the fatal meeting, according to investigative reporting by the Zurich-based newspaper Blick.
The Fatal “Reconciliation” Meeting
The bloody sequence of events unfolded on May 12, 2026, inside the high-end Restaurant “27” in an affluent district of Belgrade. Two heavily armed rival underworld bosses, Saša Vuković and Aleksandar Nešović, had agreed to sit at the same table for a high-stakes reconciliation meeting.
Serving as the official mediator between the two mobsters was Veselin Milić, the Chief of the Belgrade Police, who sat directly at the table with them.
The peace talks collapsed into bloodshed when Vuković drew a weapon and shot Nešović twice in the abdomen at point-blank range. Subsequent investigations revealed that Vuković’s wife had smuggled the murder weapon into the restaurant just moments before the party sat down.
A Brutal Cover-Up and Mass Arrests
The day after the shooting, Nešović’s partner officially reported him missing to authorities, setting off local rumors that the police were actively covering up a gangland homicide.
A rapid internal investigation and a wave of raids led to a sweeping series of high-profile arrests. Those placed behind bars include:
- Saša Vuković: The suspected shooter and a former police officer.
- Veselin Milić: The Belgrade Police Chief, who was summarily dismissed from his post.
- Accomplices: Milić’s personal bodyguards, Vuković’s wife, the restaurant owner, and a waiter who had been ordered to scrub the crime scene clean of blood.
The grim reality of Nešović’s fate was realized nine days later, on May 21, when investigators recovered his remains. The underworld boss’s body had been severely burned, stuffed into a motor oil barrel, and sealed with concrete.
The State-Mafia Nexus
The scandal has sent shockwaves through Serbian civil society, serving as damning evidence of the symbiotic relationship between organized crime and state institutions.
Before ascending to the role of Belgrade’s top cop, the disgraced police chief Veselin Milić served as a personal security advisor to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić. The fact that both the mediator (Milić) and the alleged executioner (Vuković) held deep institutional ties to the law enforcement apparatus has intensified demands for a systemic purging of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
Nešović’s Cinematic Past: From Zurich to Belgrade
Aleksandar Nešović was a seasoned international target well-known to European law enforcement. In March 2000, then a 26-year-old, he was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland, for high-level narcotics trafficking.
Six months into his detention, Nešović staged a cinematic prison break:
[October 5, 2000]
Nešović fakes a severe toothache -> Escorted by two Swiss guards to the University of Zurich Dental Clinic.
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Masked, armed accomplice ambushes guards -> Forces officers to the floor at gunpoint.
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Nešović escapes in a stolen Mercedes getaway car while still bound in hand and leg irons.
The Zurich General Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to Blick that from that day forward, Nešović managed to completely evade Swiss justice, operating from the shadows of the Balkan smuggling routes.
The Swiss Connection
Nešović’s ties to Switzerland remained active up until his violent death. Following news of his execution, a prominent Zurich-based fashion influencer with over 85,000 Instagram followers published a public tribute mourning Nešović, revealing he was her godfather.
“You left in a way that no human being deserves,” she wrote to her audience, describing the slain mob boss as “a second father.” However, after being contacted for comment by Blick journalists, the influencer immediately deleted the post and deactivated her public media channels.
