New works “State” for Zvonko Veselinovici companies in Serbia

However, despite promises lasting for years, these works in southwest Serbia have not yet begun.

But, in the Sjenica area, excavations have already begun.

In the vicinity of villages near the planned highway route, over the past two years, two largely owned stone-owners of Zvonko Veselinovic's companies have received state permits, an investigation of the Balkan Radio Free Europe Service shows.

Documents He Provided REL, show that Serbia's Mining Ministry has given them permission to exploit.

In two other locations around Sjenica, these companies have also received permission for geology research, with the aim of finding new limestone reserves.

Zvonko Veselinovic is presented to the public as businessman from northern Kosovo and former business partner of Milan Radojicic, who allegedly organised the armed attack on Kosovo Police in the village of Banjska in 2023.

Both have been under United States sanctions for more than four years on charges related to organised crime and corruption.

Serbia's state, however, does not pay attention to the black-list “” and continues to share profitable jobs with Veselinovici companies.

The respective ministries and Weselinovic companies did not answer Radio Free Europe's question about what qualifies these firms for these contracts.

The construction company “Incope”, along with its two daughter companies “Novi Pazar-put” and “Betonerka Aleksinac”, have won about 9.8m euros at the end of 2025, according to their financial reports analysed by Radio Free Europe.

The revenues of these companies come, among other things, from jobs financed by Serbia's state budget.

The construction ministry has allowed Veselinovic companies to be subcontractive in the construction of several road segments, while construction works have also been given public company “Putevi Srbije” and several municipalities, documents show.

As companies earn millions, their business continues to expand.

Two quarrys in Sjenica villages

The final segment of the highway to the Adriatic Sea, across the southwest of Serbia, will be about 100km long.

The deadlines for completing this transmission have been extended for years, while authorities warn that key partners will again be Chinese companies, through direct agreements without tender.

So far, among dozens of Chinese companies' subsurgeons, with the approval of the Serbian state, have been Veselinovicki companies “Incope” from Qureja and her daughter company “Novi Pazar-put”.

The company “Novi Pazar-put”, in April 2024, has received permission from Serbia's Ministry of Mining for the use of limestone near the village of Bugjevo, in the municipality of Sjenica.

The reserves in this location are estimated at some 550 thousand cubic metres (approximately 1.5 million tonnes) stone with a planned life span of the stone for ten years.

The stone to be extracted from this area is used as a building material.

REL secured this document after a request for access to information of public importance.

The extraction of some 50,000 cubic feet [15,000 m] of limestone annually is planned in the exploration area, with about 13 hectares [13 ha].

“Novi Pazar-put” has requested permission in September 2023, while the ministry has declared it has handed over all documentation needed for approval of exploitation.

At this location, as indicated by the Mining Ministry's decision, use has been allowed even earlier.

The new permission was requested under a mining project drafted in 2023.

The satellites and air images, over the years, show intense work on this quarry.

Part of the terrain between the villages of Bugjevo and Bioc near Sjenica, where the company “Novi Pazar-put” has permission to use the limestone at Bugjevo site.

“Novi Pazar-put”, which was once state-run construction company specialising in road construction since 2020, has been owned by “Incope”, respectively by the Zvonko brothers and Zarko Veselinovic.

Since then, her income has increased.

The financial report for 2025, analysed by Radio Free Europe, shows that this company had an income of 29.8m euros, while profiting has been 2.7m euros.

Serbia's state institutions last year have awarded this company contracts worth at least 1.4m euros, according to data from the public procurement portal.

It is committed to asphalting roads in Bajnja Vrejacka and maintaining local roads in Tutin, Sjenica and Novi Pazar.

By early 2026, the company has received five contracts worth about 600 thousand euros.

Four of them are signed on the same day with a company of roads from Kraleva, for supplies with stone aggressors.

“Novi Pazar-put”, in recent months, has also been promoted to social networks for the construction of local roads in the municipality of Llucani, west of Serbia, for the construction of a rotation in Prijepole, near the border with Montenegro, as well as for the renovation of the road from that city to Milesheva monastery.

However, the contracts for these works are not published on the public procurement portal, so it cannot be determined under what conditions the company “Novi Pazar-put” was selected as a taskmaker.

Among the company's main partners “Novi Pazar-put”, according to its financial report, is the state company “Putevi Srbije”.

The report for 2025 mentions an advance from “Putevi Srbije” worth about 220 thousand euros.

As a partner whose “Novi Pazar-put” has received advance, also mentioned the Chinese company “Shandong” main contractors in several road projects in Serbia.

Wesselovis bought the company with permission to take out the stone.

The stone business “Novi Pazar-put” is also expanding through the acquisition of companies that have permission to use in the Sjenica area.

Since December 2025, owners of the company “Hots Cop” from Novi Pazar have become Veselinovics.

However, neither this company nor the “Novio Pazar-put” have answered Radio Free Europe's questions about details, so, under what conditions the Veselinovic company has become the owner of “Hots Cop”.

“Hots Cop” has only one employee and at the end of last year has had a debt of about 7 thousand euros in account.

In July 2025, it has received permission from the Ministry of Mines for the use of limestone in surface quarries “Tonjak”, in the village of Rasno near Sjenica, according to documents analyzed by Radio Free Europe.

In that area, according to the documentation, there are reserves of over 7.7 million tons of raw materials.

The planned annual use is about 100,000 cubic metres of limestone or about 250 thousand tons.

It's about a middle-size rock.

The use area of some 16 hectares has so far been of state-owned forests and pastures.

Two ground research permits near Sjenica

In addition to existing stone permits, “Novi Pazar-put” in the Sjenica area is also conducting field research in search of new sites.

The Ministry of Minings, in August 2025, gave the company “Novi Pazar-put” approval for limestone geologic research, as first for technical building stones at the Vranjevica site near the village of Duga Polana.

With this, the company has been granted permission to assess whether there is stone location in that area and what quality it has.

Expiation and taking samples should determine the amount of raw materials, and if the stone is suitable, for example, for concrete production, road construction, and similar uses.

This is the first step before possible opening of a quarry.

The research area includes a radius of about two square kilometers, while permission for research has been granted for two years.

The company “Novi Pazar-put” has another active permission for research on Sjenica territory at Stupska Lisa's location, near the village of Stup, according to documents provided by Radio Free Europe.

What else do Zvonko Veselinovich companies do?

Besides the company “Novi Pazar-put”, “Inkop” also owns three companies with different activities from construction, hotel and transport.

Among the construction projects of “Incope”, which were previously investigated by Radio Free Europe, is the construction of the fast highway from Pozharevci to Gobubac in eastern Serbia, called “Danube Commissioner”.

For this project, the Serbian state, in February 2022, has given the go-ahead that “Inkop” is one of the vice contractors of the Chinese company “Shandong”

This project, worth 337m euros, has been contracted without a tender, under an agreement between Serbia and China.

The deadlines have been extended several times, while the price of the works has also increased to 524m euros.

The latest forecast is that this road will be completed by the end of 2026.

As the work continues, it is not known exactly how much it has gained “Incope” as a sub contractor.

The company has not answered Radio Free Europe questions, while profits from state affairs are not clearly reflected in financial reports.

According to the latest report for 2025, “Incope” has registered revenues of over 40m euros and profits of over 6.3m euros.

The report does not specify who he worked with.

“co-owner Incope” by October 2023 was Milan Radojic.

He withdrew from ownership after publicly acknowledging he was organising the armed attack on Banjska.

He donated his share to “Incope” and companies linked to the Zvonko brothers and Zarko Veselinovic.

Since then, Zvonko Veselinovic holds 60% of ownership in “Incope” and linked companies, while his brother, Zarko, 40%.

Meanwhile, their business with the Serbian state has continued.

Companies also own assets worth millions of euros, including apartments and garages in Belgrade, business space in Rasle, Kralev and Novi Pazar, as well as a luxury hotel in Kopanik.

The company's assets “Dolly Bell”, which manages the hotel in Copaonic, in 2025 has been estimated at over 18.5m euros, according to the financial report.

Last year, this company has operated on losses of around 1.8m euros.

Part of the financial report showing the company's losses “Dolly Bell” in 2025.

How do other Veselinovic companies work?

In recent years, “Incope” in Serbia has also acquired two bankrupt state-owned companies.

One of them is “Betonerka Aleksinac” a company once in debt from south Serbia, which “Inkop” was bought in October 2019.

With the new owners, over the years to come, “Betonerka Aleksinac” began to link large contracts with the state and its revenues began to increase.

Even this company, since December 2021, has been under United States sanctions.

The year 2025, “Betonerka Aleksinac” has completed with revenues of about 4m euros and profits of over 690 thousand euros, according to financial reports.

It is part of the group of companies that have jointly won jobs from Serbia's Elektrodistrucation, according to previous research by Radio Free Europe.

Part of the financial report showing the company's profits “Betonerka” in 2025.

The latest contract with the Elektrodisttribution was linked in August 2024 ʹ to construction of transmission lines worth over 6m euros.

In the financial report for 2025, state company “Electricity Srbije” (EPS) is cited as one of the top business partners of “Betonerka Aleksinac”.

Part of the company's financial report “Betonierka”, where “Electricity Srbije” is listed as business partners.

“Incorpo”, in December 2022, also bought the state company “Velmortrans-plus” from the Qureja.

This was an urban transport company that was bankrupt, while “Incope” bought it for about half a million euros.

With this acquisition, the Veselinovists also became owners of the company's valuable property near the Belgrade-Nish highway, including the bus station in Qupri and over two hectares of land.

This company does not show significant financial results.

What is Zvonko Veselinovic accused of?

The U.S. report, with which sanctions were justified in 2021, says Zvonko Veselinovic is leader of an organised criminal group, while Milan Radojic is his deputy, and that they are involved in a wide scheme of corruption and bribery.

According to that report, the criminal group is involved in smuggling drugs, arms and goods between Kosovo and Serbia.

The corruption scheme also mentions politicians, whose Veselinovic, according to the report, has helped them in election campaigns, while, in exchange, “has been rewarded with the best infrastructure contracts”.

It's not exactly who the politicians are talking about.

Since 2022, Radoicic and Veselinovic have been under sanctions from both the United Kingdom and corruption allegations.

While in Serbia they have no legal consequences, sanctions are binding for American and British companies and citizens who are forbidden to do business with people on the blacklist.

Kosovo authorities have linked Radoichi and Veselinovic to grave criminal acts, including the murder of Serbian politician from northern Kosovo, Oliver Ivanovic. / REL