BELGRADE, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Serbia's court in charge of organized crime on Monday unanimously found Darko Saric, leader of a criminal organization, guilty of smuggling tons of cocaine from South America, and sentenced him to a maximum penalty, along with two other organizers.
The court awarded the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison to Saric, while the criminal group received 300 years of prison sentence in total.
This is the second verdict in the case against Saric and his group, for the trafficking of narcotics committed in 2008 and 2009, after the first, 20-year prison sentence, brought in 2015, was overturned by the Appellate court and a re-trial was ordered.
In 2009, nearly 3 tons of Saric's cocaine were seized near the coast of Uruguay, after the encrypted communication of the Saric's group was intercepted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the United States.
Saric surrendered in 2014 after a month and half of negotiations with Serbian authorities, under accusation of transporting total 5.7 tons of cocaine and laundering millions of euros.
The court on Monday sentenced two other people as group organizers along with Saric -- fugitive Goran Sokovic, in absence sentenced to 15 years in prison, and Zeljko Vujanovic who was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Other group members received sentences from 1 to 15 years in prison, while the three cooperating witnesses in the case received sentences from five to ten months in prison.
The court also leads a separate case against Saric and 17 other people for charges on money laundering performed in Serbia by placing around 22 million euros from cocaine smuggling into legal businesses.
Both Saric and other group members are still entitled to appeal.
