Svidník
Mothers of crime
FOUR women decided to do something different during their maternity leave and went on a crime spree.
The women, aged between 20 and 48, joined three other female friends in the towns of Svidník and Stropkov and allegedly stole Sk70,000 worth of jewels and cash from shops around the two towns.
Police later managed to catch the seven women, all of whom are married. They said that the women could face years in jail if convicted of the thefts.
Rimavská Sobota
Hungry hooligans
THREE youths who "for a joke" broke into a house and beat two men nearly to death demanded food from their victims after the attack.
The three culprits, aged between 17 and 20, allegedly went through an unlocked door into a family home in Rimavská Sobota and began brutally beating two men who owned the house.
Police said that after leaving one man so badly beaten that he will spend two months in hospital and threatening the pair with a knife, the three attackers then demanded "something to eat".
The two men, in fear of their lives, prepared a snack, after which the attackers left.
The three men, who told police the had carried out the attack "for a joke", face up to eight years in prison.
Bratislava
Mafia faces own acid test
Police on February 7 broke up an organised gang of extortionists, murderers and thieves in the Slovak capital
The raid, which followed similar busts of Slovak mafia groups in Žilina and Trenčín regions last month, collared 15 suspects, 10 of whom were subsequently remanded in custody.
Police corps vice-president Jaroslav Spišiak said that many weapons, Sk50 million in cash and an as-yet-unknown quantity of euro banknotes had been seized in the operation.
Slovak law enforcement has vowed to win the war with organised crime this year; Spišiak, who is directing the campaign, came to police headquarters last fall after successfully dispersing a violent underworld in south Slovakia's Dunajská Streda.
The men in custody face unusually long sentences because of the extraordinary violence of their crimes. Spišiak reported that at least five victims, all businessmen, had been killed and their body parts destroyed with acid. The remains were then scattered in remote areas, he said.
Compiled by Spectator staff
