Radonjic is accused of coordinating the transportation of tons of cocaine using commercial cargo ships (Picture: Getty)
A Balkan gangster has been extradited to the US from Italy to face charges linked to an ‘international drug ring’ transporting cocaine across the world.
Milos Radonjic, from Montenegro, who is nicknamed the ‘Pirate of the Unknown’, is alleged to be heading the Kavac-organised crime clan from the city of Kotor.
The 34-year-old is accused of coordinating the transportation of tonnes of cocaine using commercial cargo ships, including some registered to deliver goods to the US.
The drugs were shipped from South America to Europe for cartels in the Balkans.
Ship crew members knowingly took part in the alleged trafficking, according to court documents.
Radonjic was arrested in October after travelling to Italy to captain a 24-metre yacht named Maxi Jena in an international race.
He was detained in Trieste just before the event began and was then transferred to a maximum security prison.
Despite the allegations, he has maintained his innocence, insisting that he was a victim of mistaken identity.
FBI Special Agent in Charge Scott: ‘Radonjic and his co-conspirators allegedly transported tons of cocaine across the world using commercial cargo vessels.
‘His extradition is a testament to global multiagency efforts to disrupt transnational criminal organizations who traffic drugs by air, land, or sea.’
Radonjic and others also trafficked drugs that have ‘contributed to the overdose and drug addiction crisis in the US and throughout the world,’ prosecutors wrote in a request to a federal judge to detain Radonjic pending trial.
Breon Peace, US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement on Saturday: ‘This arrest and successful extradition is a lesson that the high seas are not a no-man’s land for the rule of law.
‘We are committed to bringing those who violate it to justice.’
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