Smuggling of tobacco through Montenegro never stopped - this was confirmed after yesterday's seizures of cigarettes worth more than one million euros are believed. The cigarettes were found in the rented warehouses of the owner Pjetro Đokaj, who is also the owner of the company "Golden Gate" on Karabuški polje near Tuza.
The questions that the investigators have yet to answer are who stored the cigarettes in those warehouses, in what way, where and how they were transported, but also whether anyone from the state was in any way involved in this case, because experience shows that usually so.
What is known so far about this case is only what we were able to record with the camera last night and today, because no one from the competent authorities has announced anything about the record seizure of cigarettes.
The cigarette confiscation operation began yesterday around 16:XNUMX p.m. when, with the order of the special prosecutor and investigating judge, the inspectors of the Department for the Suppression of Organized Crime, their colleagues from the special investigation team and officers of the Customs Administration began to search the buildings owned by Đokaj. During the search, they found an unspecified quantity of cigarettes, allegedly Virginia and JPS without excise stamps.
The only thing that Đokaj could tell the inspectors about this case was that he rented out the warehouses in question to another company and that he had no knowledge of what that company was storing in them.
From the company "Golden Gate", whose owners Pjetar and Elizabeta Đokaj denied that smuggled cigarettes were confiscated in the salons, yard and warehouses of that company, but also claims that the owner of that company was taken into custody. They state that their company has nothing to do with cigarettes. They did not say to whom they leased the warehouse.
"Golden Gate cannot be held responsible for the events in the neighborhood hundreds of meters away from the facility, which is leased by a person who has no connection with Golden Gate or the family of the founder of Golden Gate," Golden Gate said in a statement.
The only official statement that TV Vijesti received from state authorities regarding this case was the one from the Tobacco Agency. In this institution, they confirm that if there were Virginia and JPS cigarettes in the warehouses, then they are illegal cigarettes.
"According to the Tobacco Act, registered importers and manufacturers of tobacco products are obliged to submit a request to the Tobacco Agency for registration of brands of tobacco products in the Register of Brands of Tobacco Products before putting tobacco products on the market. As no registered importer and manufacturer of tobacco products has submitted a request for the registration of the brands "Virginija" and "JPS", means that the mentioned brands are not legally sold on our market", the Tobacco Agency stated.
For decades, Montenegro has been one of the key hubs in the international chain of cigarette smuggling. Tobacco smuggling channels through Montenegro very often coincide with drug channels. This business was profitable back in the 90s, when the smuggling of tobacco through Montenegro was led by the Italian mafia organizations Sacra Corona Unita, Camorra and Tarda.
During that period, it is believed that around 11 billion euros worth of cigarettes were traded through Montenegro, of which three billion belonged to the Italian mafia. Due to these affairs, some of the highest state officials, including former Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, were the subject of investigations by the Italian judicial authorities for many years.
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