STRUCTURE OF ORGANIZED CRIMINAL GROUPS ORIGINATING FROM THE BALKAN PENINSULA: MODELS OF TRAFFICKING IN HUMAN BEINGS CRIMINAL GROUPS Stanojoska Angelina, PhD 1 Petrevski Blagojce, MSc in Criminology and Criminalistics (PhD Student) 2 Shushak Ivona, MA in Criminal Law (PhD Student) 3 angiest22@gmail.com blagojcedugal@yahoo.com susak.ivona@gmail.com Abstract The Balkan territory through the years has been and is known for the violence that has happened and it’s happening on its soil. Known by the permanent war conflicts, the Balkans are still in the role of path of crime, with every criminal path going through it, but also as a nest of crime, an origin place of many criminal groups that are active here, but also in the other regions of the European continent. Albanian, Bulgarian and Serbian criminal groups are the ones that rule the Balkan territory, and commit several of “modern”, organized crimes. The model of trafficking in human beings on the Balkans is known as a model of violence, because of the use of violent methods as instrumentum operandi. The paper will try with a comparative analysis to build the structure of organized criminal groups on the Balkans, make the difference between the vertical and horizontal division of roles, and try to explain their modus operandi and its fluctuation through the years. Key words: model, network, organized criminal groups, role, structure, trafficking in human beings. 1. INTRODUCTION Organized crime groups are the core of modern crime, carrier of its complexity. Through their organizational frame, their structure, we can research and connect different models of groups 1 Stanojoska Angelina, PhD is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Law, University “St.Kliment Ohridski” - Bitola, Republic of Macedonia 2 Petrevski Blagojce, MSC, is a PhD student at the Faculty of Security - Skopje, University “St.Kliment Ohridski” - Bitola, Republic of Macedonia 3 Shushak Ivona, MA, is a Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Law and a PhD student at the Faculty of Security - Skopje, University “St.Kliment Ohridski” - Bitola, Republic of Macedonia