The Czech “Dark Ages” were also characterised by a few domestic gangsters who were involved in larger deals under the supervision of the state. Here, too, the capacity and socio-economic inadequacy of the surveillance sector, particularly of law enforcement agencies, was exploited in the early 1990s.
Among the first Czech names that resonated in the most famous criminal cases was Antonín Běla. He targeted dishonest businessmen who needed loans or help to eliminate competition.
Běla began his criminal career under communism, when he was mainly involved in robberies. In the 1970s, he was suspected of murdering a policeman. He also committed economic crimes during the unfree regime. He was also imprisoned for it. However, he used his criminal record to build his reputation and connections, which he used to form his own criminal group after the fall of the regime. In the 1980s, the recidivist Běla met other criminals who were to rise a decade later, such as František Mrázek. The Czech underworld began to form mainly around the so-called veksláks.
An important factor in the rise of Bela and his entourage was their cooperation with corrupt police officers. This was not only in the form of protection and information extraction from investigations, but also working for Bela, where police officers were directly involved in violent actions in return for a reward. In particular, the group around Bela is credited with violent underworld activities and “legendary” acts such as the theft of Jewish tombstones, which he subsequently used as historical paving in the centre of Prague as part of a public contract. Although his rudeness and violence were covered up by the police, they inevitably led to his having many enemies. Eventually, his supposed friends turned against him and he was executed, apparently on the orders of František Mrázek, by masked commandos in April 1996, right in Bela’s home.
