Arrested drug lord linked to #Perth crime figures

A GLOBAL organised crime target wanted in Perth over a $40 million drug shipment has been arrested near his heavily guarded hilltop home in Eastern Europe.

Vaso Ulic, 58, became well known to WA Police because of his connections to Perth crime figures, including Fabian Quaid and Troy Mercanti.

Quaid is serving a 17-year jail sentence for his role in trafficking 44kg of ecstasy through Fremantle Port — a 2008 drug conspiracy in which Ulic was the coordinator, according to Supreme Court documents.

Since 2014, prosecutors in Ulic’s supposed safe haven of Montenegro have had a detailed brief from the Australian Federal Police which includes a dozen files about the former Sydneycrime figure. Yesterday, the country’s Directorate for Drugs and Smuggling joined with the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime and raided Ulic’s home just outside the Montenegrin capital of Podgorica after arresting him at a nearby shopping centre.

It is alleged that the Albanian-born Ulic, who is a dual Australian-Montenegrin national, has been behind one of the world’s largest drug cartels and money laundering operations.

In 2010,the extent of his Perth connections were revealed and how Quaid, Mercanti and others travelled to Montenegro in 2002 to attend Ulic’s daughter’s wedding.

Source: Arrested drug lord linked to Perth crime figures | Perth Now