Rade Kotur

Last updated May 04, 2019

Rade Kotur (born c. 1952) is a Bosnian Serb living in Sweden, where he has run a gambling empire and been involved in organized crime. Swedish newspapers have dubbed him "The Gambling King". In March 2009, he was sentenced to 14 years in prison for instigating a murder, illegal gambling, and various forms of tax evasion.^[1]^[2]

Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north and Finland to the east, and is connected to Denmark in the southwest by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund, a strait at the Swedish-Danish border. At 450,295 square kilometres (173,860 sq mi), Sweden is the largest country in Northern Europe, the third-largest country in the European Union and the fifth largest country in Europe by area. Sweden has a total population of 10.2 million of which 2.5 million have a foreign background. It has a low population density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre (57/sq mi). The highest concentration is in the southern half of the country.

Organized crime groupings of highly centralized criminal enterprises

Organized crime is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals who intend to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. Some criminal organizations, such as terrorist groups, are politically motivated. Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, such as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection". Gangs may become disciplined enough to be considered organized. A criminal organization or gang can also be referred to as a mafia, mob, or crime syndicate; the network, subculture and community of criminals may be referred to as the underworld. European sociologists define the mafia as a type of organized crime group that specializes in the supply of extra-legal protection and quasi law enforcement. Gambetta's classic work on the Sicilian Mafia generates an economic study of the mafia, which exerts great influence on studies of the Russian Mafia, the Chinese Mafia, Hong Kong Triads and the Japanese Yakuza.

Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought. This state of mind may, depending upon the jurisdiction, distinguish murder from other forms of unlawful homicide, such as manslaughter. Manslaughter is a killing committed in the absence of malice, brought about by reasonable provocation, or diminished capacity. Involuntary manslaughter, where it is recognized, is a killing that lacks all but the most attenuated guilty intent, recklessness.

Biography

Kotur was born in Draksenić village near Bosanska Dubica, PR Bosnia-Herzegovina, FPR Yugoslavia, and was educated as a tradesman (car mechanic) in his home country. In 1972, Kotur, in his early twenties, moved to Sweden. One of his interests was karate, and he has earned a black belt in the sport.

Draksenić Village in Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Draksenić is a village in the municipality of Kozarska Dubica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

A tradesman, tradeswoman, tradesperson, skilled tradesman, skilled tradeswoman, skilled tradesperson or tradie refers to a worker who specializes in a particular occupation that requires work experience, on-the-job training, and often formal vocational education, but not a bachelor's degree.

Karate (空手) is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Kingdom. It developed from the indigenous Ryukyuan martial arts under the influence of Chinese Kung Fu, particularly Fujian White Crane. Karate is now predominantly a striking art using punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes and open-hand techniques such as knife-hands, spear-hands and palm-heel strikes. Historically, and in some modern styles, grappling, throws, joint locks, restraints and vital-point strikes are also taught. A karate practitioner is called a karateka (空手家).

In the 1980s Kotur bought a café located in the Gothenburg district of Bergsjön, which he made into a pizzeria. This pizzeria was later transformed into a gambling parlour that formed the basis for his gambling business called RK Company, with the name taken from Kotur's initials. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Kotur built up the RK Company, which operated automated poker and slot machines in pizzerias and convenience stores throughout Sweden.

Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has a population of approximately 570,000 in the city center and about 1 million inhabitants in the metropolitan area.

Bergsjön is a district in eastern Gothenburg, Sweden. On January 1, 2011, Bergsjön and Kortedala became the Eastern District of Gothenburg as part of a larger reorganization of the city of Gothenburg; the number of district councils was halved, to ten. Bergsjön, as part of Eastern District of Gothenburg, is divided into two smaller areas: Western and Eastern Bergsjön. In Eastern Bergsjön construction and development in the area began in 1965, and in Western Bergsjön development started in 1967.

Criminal activities

Kotur's gambling empire also included unlicensed, illegal gambling machines. Already in 1978, Kotur had been convicted of tampering with a slot machine. In 1990, 1993, 2002 he was convicted on illegal gambling charges and for breaking the Lottery Act.

According to the prosecutor, Kotur's gambling business had a turnover of at least 463 million kronor ($74 million) between January 1, 2005 and November 13, 2007. Kotur was being charged with grievous tax crimes and false accounting in an alleged attempt to shield from the Swedish Tax Agency hundreds of millions of kronor generated from his gaming operations. He was already on trial for his alleged involvement in the killing of Ratko Đokić, known as "The Godfather", who operated a rival gambling operation at the time. Nenad Mišović spoke against Kotur in the media, but in August 2008 at the court process against Kotur he protected Kotur in his testimony.^{[ citation needed ]}

Ratko "Cobra" Đokić was a Serbian-Swedish mob boss, a leader of the so-called "Yugo Mafia" or Yugoslavian Brotherhood, composed of Yugoslavs in Sweden. He owned a boxing gym in a suburb of Stockholm. He was assassinated in May 2003.

Nenad Mišović is a Serbian-born Swedish resident sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Ratko Djokić in May 2003. The prosecution argued that Mišović worked as a hit man on behalf of gangster Rade Kotur. Though uncooperative with investigations into Kotur's activities during his trial, after conviction Mišović provided police with details of his recruitment by Kotur to carry out attacks against Djokić in Skärholmen in 2003, and against another man in the Stockholm suburb of Fisksätra in 2002.

Kotur was arrested in the United Kingdom in November 2007, following a massive raid on his suspected illegal gambling operations, in which 400 slot machines were confiscated from 150 different locations throughout Sweden.^[3] Police succeeded to arrest him after a journalist from Swedish TV3 interviewed Nenad Mišović in prison and later journalists succeeded to find his phone number in London. He was then arrested by the police and extradited to Sweden.^{[ citation needed ]}

The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

TV3 is a Swedish television channel owned by Viasat. It was founded on 31 December 1987 by entrepreneur Jan Stenbeck.

Related Research Articles

The Genovese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City and New Jersey as part of the Mafia. The Genovese crime family are rivaled in size only by the Gambino crime family, and are unmatched in terms of power. They have generally maintained a varying degree of influence over many of the smaller mob families outside New York, including ties with the Philadelphia, Patriarca, and Buffalo crime families.

Salvatore LoCastro is a reputed caporegime in the New York Gambino crime family.

Paul Frank "Paulie" Vario, was an American mobster and made man in the Lucchese crime family. Vario was a caporegime and had his own crew of mobsters in Brooklyn, New York.

Jose Miguel Battle Sr. was a policeman and Cuban exile who served in the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs Invasion to overthrow the communist Cuban regime in 1961. He later became the nominal leader and founder of "The Corporation," also known as the "Cuban Mafia," and he invested in the gambling industry in the United States and Peru. He was convicted of racketeering and sentenced to 20 years prison sentence.

Serbian organized crime or Serbian mafia are various criminal organizations based in Serbia or composed of ethnic Serbs in the former Yugoslavia and Serbian diaspora. The organizations are primarily involved in smuggling, arms trafficking, heists, drug trafficking, protection rackets, and illegal gambling. The mafia is composed of several major organized groups, which in turn have wider networks throughout Europe.

The Gothenburg discothèque fire was a devastating fire caused by an arson attack on October 29, 1998, which occurred in premises located on Hisingen island in Gothenburg, Sweden. These had been rented for the night by an organization catering to the Macedonian community in Gothenburg for the purpose of hosting a discothèque. 375 young people aged 12–25 years old were present in the premises at the time that the fire started, the vast majority of which had various ethnic minority backgrounds. The premises had been estimated by the fire department as safe for only 150 people. 63 people were killed during the incident and around 200 people were injured.

Mirsad Bektašević, alias Maximus, is a Swedish citizen born in Serbia who in 2005 was arrested in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, charged with planning a terrorist attack against an unnamed target. Bektašević was convicted in 2007 alongside three other men and sentenced to 15 years and 4 months of imprisonment.

Matthew Madonna is the current street boss of the Lucchese crime family. Madonna was heavily involved in narcotics trafficking before being imprisoned. Currently Madonna is serving a prison sentence on gambling and bribery charges.

Frank L. "Buster" Wortman was an American St. Louis-area bootlegger, gambler, criminal gang leader, and a former member of the Shelton Brothers Gang during Prohibition. Wortman would eventually succeed the Sheltons, and take over St. Louis's gambling operations in southwest Illinois until his death.

The Ozone Park Boys, also known as "Liberty Posse" and "The Young Guns" are a Gambino crime family Mafia crew based in Ozone Park, Queens. They are infamous for their massive number of crimes, including an illegal $30 million-a-year sports gambling enterprise.

Antonio Tomasulo, also known as "Bootsie", was an Italian-American mobster who served in the New York Bonanno crime family running a highly lucrative illegal slot machine gambling operation.

John "Porky" Zancocchio is a New York mobster with the Bonanno crime family Consigliere who is a loanshark and a bookmaker. One of Zancocchio gaming clients was U.S Major League Baseball player Pete Rose.

The Kansas City Crime Family, also known as Civella crime family, is a Mafia family based in Kansas City, Missouri.

The Lucchese crime family's New Jersey faction, also known as The Jersey Crew, is a powerful faction within the Lucchese crime family. The faction operates throughout the Northern New Jersey area. During the 1970s into the late 1980s, the faction was led by Anthony Accetturo and his protégé Michael Taccetta. In 1987, Victor Amuso took over the family and began demanding a higher percentage of tribute from the faction. Accetturo refused and a war erupted between the New Jersey faction and the New York faction. This left brothers Michael and Martin Taccetta in charge of the faction as they tried to have Accetturo and his family murdered. In 1993, Accetturo defected and became a government witness. He helped convict Michael and Martin Taccetta. Today the faction is controlled by Ralph Perna.

Gregory "Big Georgie" DeCicco is a New York mobster and longtime caporegime in the Gambino crime family. DeCicco is one of the last capos of the old John Gotti regime in the 1980s who have not been under any indictment until now. DeCicco is the uncle of former Gambino underboss Frank DeCicco, who was killed in a car-bomb meant for his boss John Gotti, ordered by then current boss of the Genovese crime family, Vincent "Chin" Gigante, and Lucchese crime family leaders Vittorio "Vic" Amuso and Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso as revenge for the murder of former Gambino crime family boss, Paul Castellano, a strong ally of both the Genovese and Lucchese crime families.

The Velentzas crime family is a Greek-American criminal organization operating in the New York City area. Mostly active in the 1980s and 1990s with illegal gambling. Today the organization is still active in illegal gambling operating with the Lucchese crime family.

The Lucchese crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominate organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia.

Mikael Ljungman is a Swedish politician, lawyer and businessman. He was convicted of fraud and false accounting related to his business activities, for which he served a two-year prison term. He is also known for his association and involvement with two high-profile tech failures: the game console manufacturer Gizmondo in 2005 and IT Factory in 2008. After his release from prison, Ljungman became active in the Christian Democrats legal policy network. He was selected as the Christian Democrats parliamentary candidate for the 2014 Swedish elections.

On 18 March 2015, two unidentified gunmen entered a pub in Gothenburg, Sweden and began firing indiscriminately at people inside the restaurant. The pub, Vår Krog & Bar, is located in the Biskopsgården neighbourhood of Gothenburg on Hisingen, an area that has witnessed gang violence. This shooting marks the first time an innocent bystander has been killed by criminal gang violence in Sweden. The shooters were part of a gang from North Biskopsgården out for revenge.

References

↑ "Gambling baron sentenced to 14 years". The Local . 12 March 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009.
↑ "Spelkungen dömd till 14 års fängelse". Göteborgs-Tidningen (in Swedish). 12 March 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009.(Title in translation: Gambling king sentenced to 14 years in prison)
↑ "Gambling baron trial begins in Gothenburg". The Local . 4 August 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2009.

External links

Article about Kotur from The Local
Article about Kotur in Serbian newspaper Kurir
Article about Kotur in Montenegro newspaper Dan

The Local is a multi-regional, European, English-language digital news publisher with local editions in Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Each site, while alike in appearance, has separate editorial teams, each focused on its respective market.

Kurir is daily tabloid published in Belgrade. Its tone is abrasive, direct and irreverent, running sensationalist stories that other newspapers won't touch. Although the paper heavily relies on celebrity gossip, it also achieved considerable political influence.

<i>Dan</i> (newspaper) newspaper published in Montenegro

Dan is a daily newspaper published in Montenegro. It took its name from the old day Cetinje monthly newspaper that was published in the old Montenegrin state at the beginning of the 20th century. As of 2009 it held the second place after Vijesti with a share of an estimated 31,6% of the country's total readers.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] "Gambling baron sentenced to 14 years". The Local . 12 March 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009.

[2] "Spelkungen dömd till 14 års fängelse". Göteborgs-Tidningen (in Swedish). 12 March 2009. Retrieved 1 June 2009.(Title in translation: Gambling king sentenced to 14 years in prison)

[3] "Gambling baron trial begins in Gothenburg". The Local . 4 August 2008. Retrieved 1 June 2009.