August 15, 2025

Hello John,

Last month, a leader of the Group America cartel was found dead in his jail cell in Peru.

Tomorrow marks eight years since Pavla Holcová, our Central Europe Editor, pulled off a high-risk gambit to secure an interview with him behind bars.

Read on for this and more of the latest in global organized crime and corruption.

Inside The Group America Investigation 

Eight years ago, the editor-in-chief of our Czech member center Investigace.cz, Pavla Holcova, talked her way into a maximum security prison in Peru to speak with the second-in-command of the Group America cartel, Zoran Jaksić. 

The enigmatic criminal organization, which has roots in New York and the Balkans, was considered one of Europe’s top drug trafficking organizations at the time.

Alongside journalists at our Serbian member center KRIK, Holcová was investigating the inner workings of this disciplined and nimble network, which specialized in connecting South American cocaine producers to European wholesalers. 

Together with KRIK editor-in-chief Stevan Dojčinović, Holcová hatched a plan to take advantage of the prison’s conjugal visit policy, which allowed women into the facility on Wednesdays.

When she arrived at the prison and took her place in a queue of other women, her clothes were deemed unsuitable by a guard. So she rented a child-size blue Yankees T-shirt, a miniskirt with a high slit, and diamante-studded flip-flops.

She didn’t have an appointment, but Jaksić agreed to speak with her, seemingly bemused at the presence of a journalist.

He didn’t want to talk about his criminal activities. So the pair discussed stoic philosophy, the Peloponnesian War, and ancient Sparta. 

“At the end of our conversation, he asked me more about OCCRP and how we work,” Holcová said. “I was describing how if I need to get some information from Serbia or Azerbaijan, I just call my colleagues and friends and ask them, and they are happy to help, and they provide me with the information. And then he said, ‘Yeah, yeah, we pretty much operate the same way’.”

In university, Holcová studied journalism and South American Studies.

“With this combination, it's somehow natural that you will go and investigate the international cocaine trade,” she said.

Her familiarity with Jakšić — and the dozens of identities he assumed in the course of his work — began after she started digging into names in an Italian file provided by KRIK editor Dojčinović.

“I started to search, and I found out that Jakšić was detained in Peru, and I started to put together the case,” she said. “And then we just went there ... and tracked down the prosecutors’ files. It was like tens of thousands of pages.”

This helped the journalists to piece together a picture of an operation that spanned Italy, Peru, Argentina, Spain and beyond.

The success of this decades-old organization was attributed, by a number of well-placed sources, to its apparent ties with security services and intelligence agencies.

“At some point they were really, really enormous, and they were really doing lots of operations, taking care of the logistics of cocaine also for other groups,” Holcová said.

Inside his prison cell, Jakšić had access to two mobile phones and no shortage of amenities — though he would later attempt several daring escapes. 

“You can buy everything here,” he told Holvocá. “I have a television. They bring me all the food I want from outside. A bottle of whiskey costs a hundred dollars, plus bribes. And here's my French perfume.”

The Group America project that emerged from this reporting spawned articles in multiple languages, and had an impact on later criminal proceedings.

“The investigation we published at OCCRP was quoted by U.S. prosecutors when they were arresting Mileta Miljanić who was the number one in the cartel,” said Holcová. “After Zoran Jakšić was [jailed], and then Mileta Miljanić was detained, really, the group ceased to operate — not completely, but it really lowered the scope of the operation.” 

Jakšić’s death, which initial reports said was under investigation, marks the end of an era, Holcová added. 

“He was one of the old school Narcos who had this kind of ethical code and was following it.”

In one of the wire taps obtained from Italian prosecutors, Jakšić’s boss said that theirs was the best job you can have. Jakšić had concurred.

More OCCRP Reporting

A Russian woman indicted in the United States last year for lying about her contact with a Russian FSB officer has been ordered to undergo psychiatric evaluation after prosecutors accused her of harassing FBI agents involved in her case.

Nomma Zarubina, who is currently awaiting trial, allegedly sent erratic messages to at least one FBI agent suggesting romantic entanglement, voicing fears about Russian surveillance, and making conspiratorial threats.

Her arrest drew attention in part because of her previous work for Elena Branson, a Russian national who was indicted in 2022 for acting as an unregistered foreign agent and subsequently fled the U.S. 

Read the full story →

Kyrgyzstan Adopts Controversial Media Law

Kyrgyzstan’s president has signed a controversial new media law which critics say paves the way for greater government control over independent journalism.

Under the new law, all media outlets — including websites and blogs — must register with the state. It also caps foreign ownership of media at 35 percent. 

The Committee to Protect Journalists’ Europe and Central Asia program coordinator Gulnoza Said warned the bill was “dangerous” and “sparks deep concern for the press.” 

Media freedom in Kyrgyzstan, once considered one of Central Asia’s freest countries, has been in sharp decline, with a crackdown seeing journalists thrown behind bars, including those from OCCRP partners Kloop and Temirov Live.

Read the full story →

Ukraine Appoints Economic Security Bureau Head 

Seasoned anti-corruption investigator Oleksandr Tsyvinsky has been announced as the head of Ukraine’s Economic Security Bureau, following international pressure over efforts to derail his appointment.

The government had initially rejected Tsyvinsky’s nomination, citing security service concerns over his father’s Russian citizenship — something the selection commission had already reviewed and dismissed.

The initial rejection was one of several developments that sparked international criticism and rare protests in Ukraine over concerns about Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky’s attempts to undermine anti-corruption measures.

Read the full story →

Ukraine Prepares Case on Abducted Orphans  

Ukrainian prosecutors have identified three suspects in the abduction of 15 children from an orphanage in the Russian-occupied southern region of Mykolaiv, as they build a case for domestic and international courts over the systematic abduction of Ukrainian minors.

OCCRP partner Slidstvo.Info reports that the children, aged 10 to 17, were living at the Novopetrivka Special School when Russian troops arrived in 2022. According to investigators, the troops allegedly made repeated visits to count the children, and eventually transported them by boat, bus, and train to Anapa, in Russia’s Krasnodar region.
 
More than 19,000 Ukrainian children remain in Russian-controlled territory, according to Ukraine’s Children’s Ombudsman.

Read the full story → 

News Briefs

• Bangladesh’s ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her children face corruption charges over disputed land deals as trials proceed amid tight security.
   
• Saudi authorities are increasingly using capital punishment to silence dissent, Human Rights Watch warned this week, pointing to recent cases such as the execution of a journalist arrested in 2018 for exposing corruption within the royal family. 
   
• Albanian police arrested 10 suspected members of an organized crime network involved in multi-ton cocaine trafficking and money laundering, Europol said Tuesday.
   
• The UK is set to roll out ten new mobile facial recognition units, which it says will be used to check against offender databases — something a civil liberties watchdog has branded as an “unprecedented” and “frightening expansion” of surveillance measures. 
   
• Peru’s former president Martín Vizcarra was transferred to prison this week following five months of pretrial detention over bribery allegations centered on hospital construction projects carried out while he was the governor of the Moquegua region, some 11 years ago. 
   
• Over 138 judicial employees in Iran have been dismissed or convicted over the past year in a sweeping anti-corruption campaign, Iran International reported.
   
• Raids have been carried out on the homes and offices of arms dealers across Bulgaria this week as part of a corruption investigation launched by Ukraine that is probing alleged overpricing in arms sales. 
   
• Mexico has extradited 26 suspected cartel members to the U.S. — a move Mexico’s president called a “sovereign decision,” but which comes amid intensifying pressure from the Trump administration to take action on the drug trade.
   
• Rights groups are raising the alarm over conditions in Tunisia’s prison system, following three inmate deaths during one week in July.
   
• A Bishkek court has jailed Munarbek Saipidinov, the “godson” of Kyrgyzstan’s corrupt former deputy customs chief, on corruption charges. Saipidinov was extradited from Russia on August 7.

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Investigative Data Developer: We are looking for an experienced Python developer to join OCCRP’s data team. Apply by August 17th.

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OCCRP News

OCCRP and several of its member centers were partners in investigations that have been shortlisted for the 2025 IJ4EU Impact Award, Europe’s annual prize celebrating impactful collaborative journalism.

“Say Privet,” KremlinLeaks, Passportgate, The Baku Connection, Poison PR, and With Europe’s support, North African nations push immigrants into the desert are all finalists for the award.

Winners will be announced September 26.