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| - Serbian police arrested 17 people in a crackdown on a crime syndicate linked to hooligans who support Belgrade's Partizan football club, the Interior Minister said Thursday. Serbia's hardcore football fans are notorious for their rowdiness in stadiums while some have also been accused of using sport as a front for engaging in organised crime. The bust took place in the night between Wednesday and Thursday, and was a joint action of Serbian police and the intelligence agency, Interior Minister Aleksandar Vulin said in a statement. The arrested are accused of "murder, extortion, drug trafficking, the worst kinds of criminal offences", he said. Police official Ninoslav Cmolic said "the dismantled criminal group was hiding behind a group of Partizan supporters, but they are not supporters, they are common criminals." The arrests "show that Serbia is fighting against the mafia", Vulin added. In recent years, Serbia has seen a string of gangland-style killings of football hooligans. During the 1990s wars that unravelled former Yugoslavia, right-wing football fans also joined the ranks of paramilitaries. The most infamous was the "Tigers" militia commanded by the late Zeljko Raznatovic Arkan, the leader of a hardcore group of Red Star Belgrade supporters. mat/mbs/ssm/spm
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