Police in Spain arrested three suspected Serbian criminals on Friday.

Serbia's Interior Minister, Ivica Dacic, confirmed shortly thereafter that one of those arrested was Vladimir Milisavljevic, a fugitive convicted of aiding and abetting the 2003 assassination of Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.

Djindjic, who had led a popular uprising that toppled strongman Slobodan Milosevic, was shot dead by a sniper.

Dacic showed the mugshots of the four suspects, saying they were captured in a Valencia restaurant and had no chance to resist arrest.

On the run

Milisavljevic was sentenced in absentia to 35 years in prison by a Belgrade court in 2007. He was one of nearly a dozen gang members convicted of involvement in the murder. In a separate 2008 case, he was sentenced to a further 40 years in prison for crimes connected with his alleged membership of the "Zemun Clan," a mafia gang that developed from an infamous paramilitary group in the Balkan wars known as "Tigers of Arkan."

Spanish police also named one of the captured suspects as Luka Bojovic, thought to be the leader of the Zemun Clan. Police said Bojovic was wanted for 20 murders in Serbia, Spain and the Netherlands. The police statement also said that Luka Bojovic was wanted for the trafficking of people, drugs and weapons.

msh/ng (AFP, AP, dpa)