Arrested smugglers were contracted to sell weapons to the FARC in Tivat

Unaware that the ring was tightening around them, three international arms smugglers - Romanians Christian Vintila (44) and Virgil Flavia Georgescu (42) and Italian Massimo Romagnoli (43) - came to Montenegro three times from May to October to meet with alleged buyers of arms.

US DEA agents were waiting for them in our country, who presented themselves as associates of the terrorist organization Revolutionary Army of Colombia (FARC).

Vintila, Georgesku and Romagnolio were handcuffed only after all their contacts were recorded and documented.

According to unofficial information from "Vijesti" from the Police Directorate, two Romanians were arrested on Monday in the "Ramada" hotel in Podgorica.

A day later, instead of his business partners, the Italian was met by police officers at the Podgorica airport.

The head of NCB Interpol Podgorica, Dejan Đurović, said yesterday that the indictment charges Vintila, Georgesku and Romanjoli with having tried to sell military weapons - from pistols to rocket launchers - to persons they believed to be connected to the FARC.

After the arrest of the investigating judges of the High Court in Podgorica, he ordered them to be extradited, and Đurović said that they are in the process of extraditing them to the USA.

According to the US indictment, Georgescu, as an intermediary in arms smuggling, introduced the smugglers Vintila and Romagnoli to three people who presented themselves as representatives or collaborators of the FARC.

In several phone calls between May and August, Georgescu told the first agent that he should not talk on the phone about his relationship with the FARC.

From him he received a list of weapons that the FARC allegedly wanted and said that his contacts could obtain them.

American prosecutor Prit Barara claims that Georgescu met with this agent on September 23 in Bucharest and that he then explained to him that the FARC needed weapons in order to kill Americans and shoot down American helicopters and airplanes.

Sjutradan, in a meeting with two agents and Georgeskua Vintila, said that he was waiting for the supplier's response as to whether he could get weapons from the provided list, but he also gave them his catalog of weapons, which included pistols, automatic rifles...

They agreed that Georgeska would contact the first agent once he and Vintila had obtained the weapons' end-user certificates.

The three defendants also met with the agents in Tivat on October 8.

According to the indictment, Romagnoli then said that he could obtain the certificates and showed them on Georgescu's computer what they looked like.

When the agents told him they wanted to shoot down American helicopters, Romagnoli showed them a catalog of weapons, including hand-held rocket launchers, and told them he could deliver the weapons to an African country and that "representatives of the FARC" should transport them to Colombia .

The US inspectors then explained to them that they should consult with their FARC bosses, after which Vintila said that they should pay an advance and test the weapons before the transaction. Romagnoli then spoke about the logistics for the payment of the money.

All meetings and conversations were recorded, claims the US Attorney.

The U.S. Attorney is seeking to confiscate all property of the three accused of conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism after the verdict.

Due to the criminal acts they are charged with, all three face life imprisonment.

Vintila is the former head of the Romanian Directorate for State Reserves, and he also worked as an inspector for weapons control and verification. Some local media claim that he is still in that position. Romagnoli is a former MP for Berlusconi's Forza Italia. According to the newspaper "Fato quotidiano", during his mandate he demanded more serious action from Italian institutions in the matter of suppressing the illegal trade in weapons and drugs.

The FARC is a Colombian left-wing criminal organization that is the world's largest supplier of cocaine, and is trying to overthrow the Colombian government. They committed a series of murders and kidnappings of American officials in Colombia. The US and the EU put them on the list of terrorist organizations.