It is as a good father who has put his affairs in order that he appears in court this Monday morning. Radosav, known as “the Yougo” or “Tony”, confesses for the first time but downplays his participation in this series of bank robberies which hit the headlines in the Béarn legal world in 2004.
The Caisse d’Épargne in Pontacq was attacked twice (on September 3 and November 9) then the Crédit Agricole in Pavie in the Gers on November 26, with a total of more than 142,000 euros at stake.
He admits to having recovered the team
Twenty years later, Radosav Mastrapovic is alone in the dock to answer for complicity in armed robbery (in the Pavia robbery) and participation in a criminal association.
The trial was not as well attended as the one in 2008, when the two robbers, Mahmoud El Shennawy and Richard Pujol (both 13 years old), and two other small-timers, were sentenced. Radosav Mastrapovic was sentenced to 10 years in prison in his absence.
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According to him, his involvement was limited to the recovery of the two robbers after the third attack. “Richard Pujol called me around noon. I was not aware [du braquage] even though I suspected that Richard was doing illegal things… But this was a surprise,” assures the sixty-year-old.
“I went to get them and brought them back to Soumoulou,” he continues, also mentioning, but briefly, that he had provided phones and chips. “I didn’t know Mahmoud that well. On the other hand, I was very friendly with Richard,” he adds.
“He’s the logistics manager.”
Statements that contrast with the detailed presentation of the investigation director, a recent retiree from the gendarmerie who officiated at the Pau research section. “His role is very important. Without him, the robberies are not possible!”, affirms the soldier detailing, with the help of a “power point”, the progress of the investigations and the connections between the gang and “the Yougo”.
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“He’s the logistics manager,” continues the former gendarme, referring to the 30 chips and telephone boxes provided to the team, but also the accommodation, vehicles and the shotgun purchased for Shennawy.
The policeman’s story plunges the court into the world of organized crime, referring to “extremely dangerous individuals,” armed, organized, “professional.” At the time of the events, El Shennawy, sentenced to life in 1977, was on the run after escaping from prison. “He was one of the five most wanted people in France.”
“Old-school thugs” and “code of honor”
He speaks of “old-fashioned thugs”, with “a code of honour”, “a word”. “A criminal group where everyone has their role” and where friendship is sacred. And “Mastrapovic is Pujol’s brother, he’s ready to do anything for him” he sums up.
“They were constantly on the phone together,” the policeman recalls. The two men called each other “bratko,” “which is the equivalent of ‘brother,'” the investigator explains.
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Both have in common the nightlife of Pau and a heavy consumption of cocaine. Both also have businesses in the restaurant business in Pau. In 1988, Mastrapovic notably bought a pizzeria in the castle district, which he sold in 1991 to open another in Gourette. He then ran a bar on rue Castetnau.
“Fell into drugs”
He never made a name for himself before the age of 42 and the death of his adopted daughter in an accident in 1996. “My life changed. Before that, we had a completely normal life.” This “turning point” made him “fall into drugs,” he says. “I was not predestined to crime,” assures the Serb, who arrived in France at the age of 14.
His criminal record began in 1998 with five convictions, including two for drug trafficking, theft and fraud. But never for robbery.
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“Richard Pujol asked me to participate several times. But I told him that I didn’t do that. I was in drugs. Robberies scared me,” confided the accused, who claims to have “turned the page on his past.” “I’m a different man.”
Shennawy and Pujol called as witnesses
The two robbers are expected as witnesses this Tuesday morning. Justice doubts that Shennawy will be there. She has lost track of him since her release in 2014 after 38 years of detention.
Richard Pujol, for his part, doesn’t have much choice. He is still incarcerated in Lannemezan after falling for a third time in 2017 after an attack on a jewelry store in Dordogne.
Arrested in Croatia after 16 years on the run
Arrested in December 2004, Radosav Mastrapovic disappeared “from February 2007” after being released under judicial supervision. “I went to Serbia to see my mother who was very ill. I had planned to stay for a month…”. The escapade would last 16 years. Radosav rebuilt his life there and set up “a taxi company”. It was while driving clients to Croatia that he was arrested in November 2023. Until now, the lack of an agreement on arrest warrants between Serbia and France had protected him. The accused claims that he never knew that he had been convicted in France. “Otherwise I would never have gone to Croatia!” he defends himself. President Gilles Neyrand corrects him: “But you were very careful not to come back to France.”
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