To tell the story of Popovic, the head of the European Sex Trafficking Ring, we have to go back to 2023. Popovic has just been arrested, and his Trafficking ring is in shambles. This is mainly due to the undercover efforts of Peter Anderson and the testimony of Burak Kaya. Burak was a traffickers for Popovic’s sex trafficking ring who befriended Yua. He received a reduced sentence thanks to his turning states witness. Despite his testimony, Popovic was found innocent. Which was due in part to expensive lawyers and also due  to his separation and division of labor. There just wasn’t enough evidence to convict him. It also didn’t hurt that he knew where all the  skeletons were hidden.

Despite the fact that he got off scott free, his organization was destroyed, so there was an affront that had to be addressed. So from that day forward, he made it mission to not only rebuild his cartel, but to exact revenge on Peter Anderson and Burak Kaya and any family members that could be found. This meant war for Popovic.

Popovic was a highly organized individual.  His organization was based on patron-client network, which I have described below.

Patron–client network

Patron–client networks are defined by fluid interactions. They produce crime groups that operate as smaller units within the overall network, and as such tend towards valuing significant others, familiarity of social and economic environments, or tradition. These networks are usually composed of:

• Hierarchies based on ‘naturally’ forming family, social and cultural traditions;
• ‘Tight-knit’ focus of activity/labor;
• Fraternal or nepotistic value systems;
• Personalized activity; including family rivalries, territorial disputes, recruitment and training of family members, etc.;
• Entrenched belief systems, reliance of tradition (including religion, family values, cultural expectations, class politics, gender roles, etc.); and,
• Communication and rule enforcement mechanisms dependent on organizational structure, social etiquette, history of criminal involvement, and collective.

One of the most prominent and visible characteristics of a sex trafficking organization is the existence of a highly formal hierarchy that is distinguished by clearly defined levels of authority and responsibilities.  

A common factor of sex trafficking structures – whether vertical or horizontal – is their uncanny ability to informally communicate responsibilities and operating procedures.  They don’t use written rules or guidelines like legitimate corporations.  Instead, instructions are communicated orally and often only implied.  Still, they are ruthlessly enforced by “lugartenientes” (lieutenants), better known as plaza bosses.  Organizational members quickly learn the rules, or they are dealt with violently.  

In terms of communication, sex trafficking networks operate much like many terrorist cells in that lower levels of communication actually result in increased security for the organization.  They tend to lean towards the passing of information and directives through personal contact rather than written communication.  Due in large part to their lack of highly structured and established procedures, sex traffickers have great adaptability in responding to law enforcement initiatives or changes in the drug markets. Flexibility is possible because of the process of close personal coordination and interactions among members of the criminal organization. 

Sex traffickershave shown great skill in adapting their criminal structures to better leverage resources and alliances in order to expand the financial and geographic scope of their illicit businesses.  Within their structures, they promote specialization that precludes multiple individuals performing the same task or responsibility.  Every member devotes his or her attention to one task that will contribute to the overall performance of the cartel.  By assigning one task to one cartel member, the most qualified and intelligent individuals get placed in key roles through a process of promotion, similar to a private corporation.  Coordination of activities by each component must occur to guarantee that all objectives are achieved efficiently and in a timely manner.

An important component of every cartel structure is that it is fashioned to protect the top leadership at all costs.  Cartel members are limited to carefully compartmentalized roles. That means that if a member is apprehended by law enforcement, he can only provide limited information (the information he is familiar with), which will not have a significant impact on the cartel’s operation.

Sex traffickers, like psychopaths, display common behavioral traits, such as a disregard for laws and social mores, a failure to feel remorse or guilt, a tendency to display violent behavior, and a disregard for the rights of others.  They are volatile and prone to emotional outbursts, resulting in horrific violence. 

Most sex traffickers are uneducated and live on the fringes of society.  As a result, they have no regard for society in general or its rules. Psychologically, they don’t feel empathy for others, although some members can be disarming and have charming personalities.

Sex traffickers when committing crimes, carefully plan out every detail in advance and have contingency plans in place.  Their members are usually cool, calm, and meticulous.  Their crimes are well organized.

Luckily for him, a few of his most trusted members had escaped the drag net. So the first thing he did was to put out feelers. Within a few days, he had made contact with a few old members. These members were instructed to start looking for ruthless but trustworthy individuals. Within six months, thanks for the most part of the assiduous efforts of thosectrusted agents he had all but rebuilt his organization. By the beginning of 2024, it was like there had never been any interruption at all.

Now that the money was pouring in again, he was able to spend some of his lucre on finding Peter Anderson and Burak Kaya. He found Burak pretty quickly. He was in a high security prison guarded around the clock. He also found out that he only had a few more months to serve, so he put Burak on the back burner for now.

The priority, therefore, was Peter. Unfortunately, he proved very difficult to find. Because within a month of the sting operation that took down the sex traffickingcartel, he had simply disappeared. It was as if he fell off the face of the earth. Popovic’s team scoured North America. Despite their herculean efforts they were totally unsuccessful in finding Peter. In some way this didn’t surprise Popovic, because anyone capable of bringing doen his whole organization was no normal person, and must have had access to extraordinary resources. They were not totally unsuccessful in their search, however, because what they did find might prove to be the next best thing. They found Peter’s aunt, her husband, and their two daughters or his cousins. So, even though Popovic couldn’t exact revenge on Peter directly he could do the next best thing and that was to hurt people he cared for. Who knows this retribution of his might have far-reaching consequences.

If they took his relatives out, it might force him to come out of hiding. At least that was the plan. To improve the likelihood of this happening, he decided to make their deaths extremely violent. Popovic thought that this just might work. For good measure they would kill any pets the family might have as well. For this task, he chose his two most trusted enforcers, Aleks Burreli and Daniel Tomasi Parek.