Morkevičius killing triggered probe into Kamuoliniai gang

The killing of combat sports star Remigijus Morkevičius became the turning point in a major investigation that dismantled the Kamuoliniai criminal group, LRT reported. The gang, which formed in Kaunas and expanded abroad, was linked to drug trafficking, violence and luxury.

The group’s influence began to decline after one of the largest criminal police investigations in Lithuania’s history, which eventually brought its leaders before the courts.

Morkevičius killing became the turning point

Aleksejus Pogorelskis, head of a division at the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, said police attention towards the Kamuoliniai group intensified after several killings in 2015 and 2016, particularly the murder of Morkevičius.

“Several leaders of the criminal world were killed in 2015, but the main starting point was the murder of Remigijus Morkevičius,” Pogorelskis said.

On December 21, 2016, Morkevičius was killed outside his home. The athlete was returning from training when an attacker shot at him with a Kalashnikov rifle.

As they investigated the killing, detectives examined several possible motives, including Morkevičius’s alleged links to organised crime. They soon established that in 2011, Morkevičius and underworld figure Mantas Pečiulis had tried to obtain drugs on credit from Ernestas Buiva, who was associated with the Kamuoliniai group. They planned to sell the drugs abroad.

“They were refused credit, so R. Morkevičius and M. Pečiulis decided to injure E. Buiva. A conflict took place and E. Buiva was beaten. Such things usually do not go without consequences,” Pogorelskis said.

According to the officer, the group’s main leader, Giedrius Janonis, then ordered retaliation. Members of the gang were sent to The Hague, where Pečiulis and Morkevičius were living at the time.

“A specific order was given to injure M. Pečiulis so severely that his legs and arms would be broken and his ear cut off,” Pogorelskis said.

Pečiulis was seriously injured and later died, while Morkevičius avoided the attack by chance because he was not at home. The perpetrators tried to conceal their traces by discarding a weapon and clothing.

This episode prompted investigators to begin an in-depth investigation into the entire Kamuoliniai group.

A group with an international reach

Artūras Garla, head of a division at the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, said the group’s origins dated back to around 1999, when a new criminal core formed in Kaunas from previously convicted people who knew one another well.

The group later expanded and took its name from Janonis’s nickname and the members’ interest in football. “That ball probably gave them the name Kamuoliniai,” Garla said.

Investigators described the group as a well-organised criminal structure that operated not only in Lithuania but also in other European countries.

“They were firmly established, and the mechanisms of their criminal activities were divided into branches,” Pogorelskis said.

According to Garla, the group’s main activities were drug smuggling and trafficking, mainly in Scandinavian countries, as well as car theft, robbery and other crimes abroad.

“In Kaunas, it was the number one group. It consisted of between 100 and 150 people,” Garla said.

Although law enforcement had known many of the group’s members for years, they were usually investigated as individual criminals or accomplices.

“Around 80 to 90 percent of the group’s core were known to law enforcement in one way or another,” Garla said.

After Morkevičius’s murder, the investigation entered a new phase. Saulius Briginas, deputy head of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau, said the evidence collected allowed investigators to identify the Kamuoliniai group as one of the most dangerous criminal organisations.