Politics plays an important role when it comes to the fight against organized crime in Serbia and Montenegro, and this factor creates that fight, writes in the analysis - Cooperation between Montenegro and Serbia in the fight against organized crime, which was worked on by a project associate at the Institute an alternative Dragana Jaćimović i Milos Jovanovic, and within the regional project "Radar of organized crime in the Western Balkans".
Based on the available and comparative data of the two countries, the authors came to the conclusion that the judicial authorities of Montenegro more often turn to their Serbian colleagues in connection with cases related to organized crime and that in this aspect there is a possibility to improve the cooperation between the prosecutor's offices.
After the referendum in 2006, bilateral agreements on cooperation between these two countries were signed in 2009, and the first major test of application was the international police action "Balkan Warrior" when, despite the signed agreements, there was a certain lack of trust, which led to the failure in the action of competent institutions in the international case of smuggling over 2,1 tons of cocaine.
In the period from 2010 to the first half of 2022, the police of Montenegro and Serbia conducted 21 joint actions in cases of organized crime, and the most of them were during 2020, when they were jointly conducted within the framework of four investigations. Over the past 12 years, police organizations in Podgorica and Belgrade have been jointly involved in 21 international investigations, with the most occurring in 2011 and 2020.
Dragana Jaćimović told "Vijesti" that the data they were able to obtain indicates that the police and the prosecutor's office of Montenegro and Serbia cooperate, but that this cooperation is of a more formal nature and mainly refers to legal assistance, and that there is an essential lack in the phase investigation of organized crime.
"Although the original idea was to focus the analysis not only on statistical data on the cooperation between the institutions of Montenegro and Serbia when it comes to the fight against organized crime, but also to include specific data to which the exchanged requests referred, the answers of the institutions to which we were able to reach, as well as the level of publicly available information, influenced the scope of the analysis. It was also not possible to compare the data held by the institutions of both countries, since the official reports of the institutions do not contain the same type of information, and there was no official response, or access to the information was denied, by most of the institutions. Cooperation is of a more formal nature and mainly refers to legal assistance, and there is a lack of essential cooperation in the phase of organized crime investigations. This may be a consequence of mistrust, but also of political circumstances between the two countries. The analysis also showed that formal preconditions for cooperation between institutions exist, but that this is not always sufficient for the fulfillment of obligations assumed by contracts, and that they depend on political will, especially when it comes to politically sensitive items, as shown by the case of non-extradition Svetozar Marović", stated Jaćimović.
Monitoring the cooperation of these two countries in this area was made impossible by the different records of prosecutorial organizations and the impossibility of searching existing records by type of international legal aid, that is, by type of criminal offense.
"Employees in those institutions need to be more engaged so that cooperation can be of better quality. If this does not happen, the conclusion that criminals from the region cooperate better than state institutions do will continue to be valid. The state authorities of Serbia and Montenegro certainly act against organized criminal groups, but the conclusion is that data is not exchanged to a sufficient extent and that the institutions do not cooperate in real time, which could be a consequence of mistrust, but also of political circumstances between these two countries." , it says in the recommendations of the analysis.
The authors of the analysis state that Serbia and Montenegro should form permanent joint investigative teams - for the formation of which the legal prerequisites have already been created - in order to constantly work on suppressing and preventing the activities of organized criminal groups.
On the basis of comparative data, they state that neighboring countries should also improve cooperation in the part related to the use of secret surveillance measures, i.e. the use of undercover investigators, and that, if the circumstances of the operational investigation allow it, they jointly carry out controlled deliveries and other important activities for investigation in organized crime cases.
"In the answer that the Police Administration sent us, it is stated that the police of Montenegro, in the part that refers to undercover investigators, continuously achieves various forms of cooperation with partner countries in the region, as well as with other countries. To what extent undercover investigators are used, i.e. whether they are exchanged between Serbia and Montenegro, we were not able to determine because it is a high-risk police work, so the data, even the statistical ones, are marked - with a secret mark.
According to the warrants issued by the Serbian police for acts related to organized crime, in the period from 2013 to July 25, 2022, four people were arrested on the territory of Montenegro. During the same period, according to warrants issued by the Montenegrin police, 13 people were arrested in Serbia.
"During that period, Serbia extradited six persons to Montenegro in connection with acts of organized crime, while Montenegro extradited three persons to Serbia," the analysis reads.
Marović as an obstacle
The authors of the analysis state that Serbia should act on the request of Montenegro and extradite Svetozar Marović, so that this case does not become an obstacle for the provision of international legal assistance in other cases from this area.
"The case of Marović is an indicator that obligations from international agreements are being fulfilled
they do not always apply, but that sometimes it also depends on political will. In 2017, Montenegro issued a warrant for a former high-ranking official of the Democratic Party of Socialists and the president of the state union of Serbia and Montenegro, for serving a prison sentence," the analysis states.
Marović was finally convicted in 2016, after signing a plea agreement and admitting that he was the head of an organized criminal group that caused multimillion-dollar damage to the budget of Budva through fraud. In April 2019, the Ministry of Justice of Montenegro sent a request to the Ministry of Justice of Serbia for the extradition of Marović, the decision in this case has not yet been made, nor has feedback been provided regarding the request.
At the end of 2020, Montenegro renewed its request for the extradition of Marović. At that time, it was emphasized that after sending the first request letter, two urgent requests were also sent.
Witness protection...
One of the activities provided for by bilateral agreements in connection with international legal assistance is the provision of assistance during witness protection.
"During the period from 2010 to mid-2022, the Department for Witness Protection of Montenegro provided a total of six assistances at the request of colleagues from Serbia - one each in 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2019, while in 2013 there were two . At the request of Podgorica, the Witness Protection Unit of Serbia provided one such assistance during 2022," the analysis states.
According to records on communication with foreign partner services, in the period from 2017 to July 25, 2022, NCB Podgorica and NCB Belgrade exchanged a total of 14.310 communications in cases of organized crime.
Bonus video:
