With the hearing of three witnesses, the trial of Budimir Krstović and his daughter Marina Krstović, who were accused of smuggling 1.206 kilograms of cocaine, continued today in the High Court in Podgorica.
Customs officer Zdravko J. Obradović, employed in the free zone in the Port of Bar, said that he only knew from the media that cocaine was seized in the warehouse of the defendants Krstović in Zeta. He answered the question of judge Vesna Kovačević, what he knew about the discovery of cocaine.
"Only from the media, what the media wrote about the discovery of cocaine," said the witness.
Then, answering questions from the defense and the court, he stated that in August 2021, he was on the evening shift with colleagues Dejan Dabanović and Srđan Bulatović, when a ship with containers sailed into the Port of Bar.
"From the head of the customs office, Marko Krstić, we received a list of which containers we need to check, the correctness of ship seals. Because there was a suspicion that some containers were with suspicious goods. The boss gave that list to one of his colleagues. We found that all the seals we checked were correct. I was present when colleague Bulatović "scanned" the container. We didn't comment on anything, like every day," said Obradović. The accused Budimir Krstović responded that it was impossible for him not to have heard that drugs were found in the container.
"I didn't know at the time that cocaine was in the container," said witness Obradović.
"How can you not know when you look at the scanner", asked Krstović.
Witness Dejan K. Dabanović, customs officer and shift leader in the free zone in the Port of Bar, said that the containers that arrived in the Port of Bar were under constant police surveillance.
The executive director of the MSC company for Montenegro, Dalibor Pelević, stated that he heard about the Krstović case from the media. He added that MSC colleagues from Belgrade were amazed when they heard what happened.
"The route of the containers, including those that were ordered for the company "San Francisco" of the defendant Krstović, is publicly available and can be followed on our website, anyone who has a bill of lading or seal number can follow them. It is publicly available," said the witness. He added that the sender of the goods has a container number and that this number can also be found out by an unknown person and used, misused for smuggling and the like.
"If we had known that there were drugs in the container, we would have prohibited its loading onto the ship. That is controlled by the customs," Pelević said.
Dabanović, in response to questions from the defense, said that it happened that goods were missing from the container and that there was a different number of seals. He cited an example a year ago when 32 packages were missing from one container. In that case, they inspect the package and ship the goods to the one he ordered, because there is nothing they can do.
Lawyer Dragoljub Đukanović noted that the customs officer witness does not say that the container is not accompanied by customs, but by the "Port of Adria".
"He said what the defense is saying, that if the goods are missing and the seals are not correct, nothing will happen, and that the goods go to the owner. I point out that the customs keep the containers with the disputed "goods", and that they only shipped the disputed containers to Krstović," Đukanović pointed out.
Lawyer Stefan Jovanović then added.
"From the testimony of the heard witness, all the allegations of the defense were confirmed, namely that in the Free Zone of the Port of Bar there were situations where containers arrived that did not have a seal or had one but one that did not follow the number of the one on the bill of lading. For the defense, it is surprising that in such situations the customs ship such a container", said the lawyer.
The trial continues tomorrow.
Bonus video:
