Portal Vijesti today, starting at 10 a.m., organized an online conference dedicated to the fight against organized crime in Montenegro, with a special focus on the fight against drug trafficking.
The Deputy Prime Minister Dritan Abazović, who is in charge of the work of the security services, said that we know that in the past years there have been attacks on journalists, shootings at journalists, who were investigating important segments - cigarette smuggling or other criminal activities that took place in Montenegro.
"I'm not sure how much the previous set of authorities showed the political will to face these problems, but our obligation to the citizens is to show such a will." When all the capacities of all institutions are strengthened, we will start a decisive fight", announced Abazović at the online conference.
"Criminals are not stronger than the state"
The Vice Prime Minister said that as far as the Government is concerned, there will be no more compromises regarding corruption and organized crime.
"There will be no connection between the structures, which currently represent the Montenegrin leadership, with criminal structures. If they are identified, we will nip them in the bud, regardless of whether they are our colleagues, closest associates or people from the Government. This has not been the case until now. The problem of Montenegro is that we had a close relationship between the holders of public offices and people who engaged in criminal activities, without that organized crime cannot even function. I believe that any criminal structure is not stronger than the state regardless of our modest capacities at the moment. I believe that when we all harness our strength together, that fight will be significantly better. It is very important to affirm the idea of public security - economic security and protection of institutions in the exercise of our constitutional rights. We have a very long way to go, but we have to go. The most important thing is to show political will, to work differently, to think differently and to build partnerships with the civil sector and the media community," Abazović announced.
The government must make media freedom a very high priority.
"I hope we will succeed. I want to congratulate you on everything and to continue with the same zeal and with the desire that the paths of revenge become dead ends, and that the progress of our society will be the highway along which we will walk unhindered", concluded the address of the second member of the Government.
"Corruption and crime affected all spheres of life"
The executive director of TV "Vijesti" Marijana Bojanić said that as a citizen, she hopes that more attention will be paid to this topic in the future, and that the competent authorities will work in the public interest.
"I hope that various criminal confrontations will fill the newspaper columns less and will be 'breaking news' on our platforms. Unfortunately, the level of organized crime and corruption in Montenegro is so high that it has inexorably affected all spheres of our lives. We must be aware that there is no economic progress in countries where corruption and organized crime are serious problems. In such countries, the businesses of privileged groups flourish, and they ravage and dominate our country. Unfortunately, we are witnesses that something like that has been happening in our country for years, we can even say for decades. That is why the topic we are going to talk about today is extremely important for the democratization of the entire society. "Regardless of the fact that there is a legal framework that guarantees the independence of the judiciary, the European Commission has assessed that the Montenegrin judiciary and the prosecution are still considered vulnerable to political interference," Bojanić said.
Investigate all attacks on journalists
The director of "Vijesti" spoke on behalf of long-time colleagues of journalist Olivera Lakić, who paid for her professional journalistic fight for the truth about cigarette smuggling with threats, assassinations, and wounds, and who is now faced with bidding again on planning her murder, and the state does not provide protection.
"We demand that all the attackers of Olje be discovered and punished, we demand that it be provided with protection. In a democratic society, journalists must be free to warn about the connection between organized crime and the state, democratic changes must also be measured by the safety of journalists," she emphasized. Bojanic.
She repeated that attacks on journalists make it impossible to establish democracy, they do not allow it to develop because journalists are the ones who investigate and bring information that is important to everyone.
"That's why all attacks on journalists must be investigated, and those responsible for the attacks prosecuted and must bear the consequences." Bojanić emphasized that regardless of the fact that there is a legal framework that guarantees the independence of the judiciary, the European Commission, for example, assessed that the Montenegrin judiciary and prosecutor's office "are still considered vulnerable to political interference".
"Long court proceedings and frequent postponements of hearings continue to prevent adjudication in cases of organized crime". As long as the police, the prosecution and the judiciary do not start working professionally and independently of the centers of power - there can be no serious progress. As a socially responsible media and de facto public service in Montenegro, TV "Vijesti" launched this project in order to once again draw the attention of all citizens and competent authorities to the cruelest criminal reckoning in the history of Montenegro. A criminal showdown that claimed dozens of lives, and in which many innocent victims also died. Unfortunately, to this day, we have not seen justice for a large number of the culprits of the conflict between the "Skaljar" and "Kavak" drug cartels. For this reason, we believe that the institutions of this country are obliged to do more not only to shed light on the crimes committed and bring the responsible persons to justice, but also to ensure that the citizens of Montenegro will no longer be in fear of whether, if they go out into the street, be the accidental victims of the showdown of criminal clans. This is what we, as a responsible media, will continue to insist on in the future," she said.
The executive director of TV "Vijesti" thanked the US Embassy for its support in the implementation of the project, within which 10 episodes of the documentary series about the conflict between drug clans in Montenegro were broadcast.
Čađenović: The series TV Vijesti pointed out the problems
Special prosecutor Saša Čađenović said that the TV series "Vijesti" pointed out the problems faced by state bodies in their work and the weaknesses of the system, because some procedures take an unjustified long time.
"We need to get to the point where we have fast court proceedings. Conflicts between criminal organizations on the territory of Montenegro have been going on for several years. What I can tell you is that in the past two years, SDT has managed to prevent several liquidations and to a significant extent. In the past year, several murders have been prevented in the territory of Bar, Budva, and in Podgorica... At the moment, the level of even serious criminal offenses has been significantly reduced compared to the previous period, but this does not absolve the SDT and other state authorities of their obligation to eradicate them more strongly and persistently. activities of criminal organizations. And in that part, I'm not only talking about the two criminal organizations - the Kavački and Skaljar clans, but also others who would like to take their place. The measures and instruments of the state authorities must be improved in order to suppress and eradicate the activities of crime in this area," said Čađenović.
The special prosecutor emphasized that the SDT is working on cases of attacks on journalists, and reiterated that criminal proceedings were initiated against five people last week, due to the suspicion that they were part of a criminal organization that attacked journalist Olivera Lakić.
"These are persons who have been identified to the degree of reasonable suspicion that they committed this crime. Also, other persons were identified who, after this criminal act, incited other persons to take the life of the journalist Lakić for a certain sum of 150.000 euros. And this is one of the examples when SDT, in cooperation with the police, prevented this crime from being attempted. The instigators and the person they recruited to carry out this act were identified. In the future, it is necessary to insist on all social changes to ensure that the state authorities work faster and more efficiently, especially in the area of preventing criminal acts," emphasized Čađenović.
Strengthen the capacities of the security services
Dejan Knežević, Head of the Sector for the Fight against Organized Crime and Corruption in the UP, pointed out that by strengthening the fight against organized crime, professional and personnel capacities in the security services must be strengthened.
"I would like to emphasize that the Department for the fight against drug trafficking prevented the smuggling of 2020 tons of cocaine in 8, and everything was done during four international operations with partner services of the USA, Great Britain, Serbia, Croatia, the Netherlands... This is a good result and for much larger countries. During November, we seized about 2 tons of marijuana with the Customs Administration in Božaj. During the operation "Panther" on Lake Skadar, we confiscated 150 kilograms of skunk, and an employee of UIKS Spuž was also arrested," Knežević said.
The former head of the Anti-Drug Department, Miodrag Laković, who left the Police Directorate, said that as a citizen, he felt that the "Road of Revenge" series raised citizens' awareness of the importance of supporting the fight against organized crime.
"When it comes to the fight against organized crime, I believe that the main mechanism is the law on the origin of property. To rein in criminal groups through this legal solution. Therefore, we need to find a model for controlling money, which is used in organized crime. In this sense, the announced law is very important. We have a war of clans over money, which they got from the drug trade. Because if you create strong mechanisms to control money from criminal activities, then you will also have a preventive effect on those who are at the front door of crime if they are aware that they will not be able to easily spend the money they have earned through crime," said Laković.
Milovac: Agreements are not concluded when there is no evidence
The executive director of MANS, Dejan Milovac, said that the war between the "Skaljar" and "Kavak" clans has been going on for so long because there is not enough political will, and that Montenegro has become specific also because "the judicial system has somehow profiled itself as a service for criminal structure".
"The penal policy is mild and creates a certain precedent, which almost always favors those prosecuted for the most serious crimes. The very concept of prosecutors and judges was set up in such a way that until now we have not had a single holder of that office who was held accountable for indisputable mistakes or judgments that went in favor of members of criminal groups. What hinders the civil sector and the media is the very transparency of the proceedings and the almost complete absence of civil control of what judges and prosecutors do. "MANS conducted an analysis for final verdicts for organized crime, and every third verdict was a sentence below the legal minimum, and every fifth ended with a plea agreement in which the sentences are mild," Milovac said. He assessed that the prosecutor's office should take care and should have benefits when concluding plea agreements, that is, that during these conclusions they learn new moments in order to expose a wider criminal network, and that this is not the case for now.
"Regarding plea agreements - it is not an instrument used to obtain evidence. Plea agreements are not concluded when there is no evidence, that is not the standard," the special prosecutor replied.
During his closing remarks, Milovac said that MANS has been investigating for years about security service officers, who have large assets disproportionate to their state salaries.
"We investigated the property from Vlatko Rakočević all the way to the former director of UP Veselin Veljović. "I absolutely understand the frustration of every honest police officer when he sees a BMW jeep or Veljović's property," Milovac said.
Through the special documentary program "The Road of Revenge", which is broadcast on Television Vijesti, our media company tried to bring the bloodiest reckoning of organized crime in the history of Montenegro to the citizens of Montenegro.
Also, through this documentary series, we tried to bring the viewers closer to all the achievements but also the challenges faced by our criminal prosecution authorities when processing cases from this war of organized criminal groups.
The goal of this conference is to, after the broadcast of the series, openly discuss the current problems and challenges with the key actors in charge of fighting organized crime, but also to offer potential solutions for improving the current practice.
The online conference was opened by the Vice President of the Government of Montenegro, Dritan Abazović, and the Executive Director of TV Vijesti, Marijana Bojanić.
Speaking at the working panel were special prosecutor Saša Čađenović, head of the Department for Combating Organized Crime and Corruption of the Police Administration Dejan Knežević, former head of the Department for Combating Drugs in the Police Administration Miodrag Laković, director of the MANS Investigation Center Dejan Milovac. The conference was moderated by Svetlana Đokić - TV Vijesti journalist and author and editor of the "Path of Revenge" series.
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