How cocaine unmasked Serbian fugitive

A SMALL packet containing 9.5 grams of cocaine.

This is what ultimately led to the unravelling of an intricate web of lies spun by Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric to try to hide his true identity and live incognito in Cape Town, it emerged in Cape Town Magistrate’s Court last week.

Gavric, 38, is wanted in Serbia, where he faces a 35-year jail sentence for murdering two people and assassinating Serbia’s most feared warlord, Zeljko Raznatovic, better known as Arkan, 12 years ago.

Serbian authorities are trying to have him extradited and Gavric has applied for refugee status.

Gavric, who was driving underworld figure Cyril Beeka when he was assassinated in March last year, is expected in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court today for the third day of a bail application hearing.

Last week, the investigating officer in the case, Paul Hendrikse, testified that on March 21 last year he went to Beeka’s murder scene in Bellville South.

Among items found there were a small bag containing white powder and a passport bearing the name Sasa Kovacevic, the alias Gavric was using and which, at that time, police did not know was a false name.

The powder, suspected to be cocaine, was sent to a forensic laboratory for testing.

Meanwhile, Hendrikse said, crime intelligence had handed him documentation stating that Sasa Kovacevic was, in fact, Dobrosav Gavric. He said he later received confirmation that the white powder was cocaine.

Gavric had then been brought to his office to be charged with cocaine possession and Hendrikse advised his legal representatives at the time that their client was the Serbian fugitive.

Hendrikse said he had shown Gavric a picture of himself taken years ago during the Arkan trial, but Gavric had said: “I do not know this person.”

Hendrikse said he had then explained to Gavric’s legal representatives that he was obtaining fingerprints from the packet of cocaine and planned to send these to Interpol. On December 23, Interpol confirmed he was Gavric.

Three days later, an arrest warrant had been issued for Gavric, and on December 27 he had handed himself over to the Hawks.

Hendrikse testified that after arriving in SA in 2007, Gavric obtained driver’s, business and firearm licences using a false passport under the name Sasa Kovacevic.