The Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) is charging Ivan Mickovic that in 2018 he formed a criminal group for cigarette smuggling, it was reported to the News from several unofficial sources.
He has not yet been arrested and is not among the five persons deprived of liberty yesterday in the action of the Special Police Department (SPO). The paper was told that a new series of arrests is expected soon of people they believe have been part of the tobacco mafia for years...
"The group is accused of smuggling cigarettes that the Revenue and Customs Administration brought to them for destruction. Part of the evidence was provided by SDT with international help, that is, through Sky applications, but also through the statements of witnesses in that case," said the Vijesti source.
After the beginning of the investigation in October 2022, the public was informed that the cigarettes were supposed to be destroyed in private facilities owned by the Mićković family. It turned out that most of the cigarettes ended up on the black market, instead of in the ovens... Ivan Mićković was then questioned in his capacity as a citizen.
The case is being handled by special prosecutor JOvan Vukotić, and the criminal organization is suspected of smuggling cigarettes worth tens of millions of euros.
Among those arrested is the director of the shipping company "Atlant agent" from Bar. Ratka Mandic, owner of the shipping company "Knjaz" from Miločani near Nikšić Marko Mickovic, owner of the forwarding company "Sava trans" from Cetinje Đoko Lješković, Rajko Đurović and from Nikšić Mileta Simanić.
Marko Mićković is Ivan Mićković's uncle.
They are charged with the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization and the criminal offense of smuggling.
Attorney Ratko Pantović told Vijestina that his client, Marko Mićković, denied committing the crimes he is accused of and explained before prosecutor Vukotić how he knew the other suspects.
"Part of the evidence that SDT has is based on the Sky application and certain witness statements. My client said that he had nothing to do with cigarette smuggling, nor with burning them, nor did he buy such cigarettes. He explained that he was an employee of the shipping company "Knjaz" and that through work he met all the others mentioned by the prosecution. He explained in detail what kind of relations he has with them, that is, that they rest only on the work of forwarding and customs clearance of goods", Pantović said.
They took away trucks, money, machines
SPO officers, by order of the SDT, spent hours searching the houses and apartments, as well as the forwarding companies of the five suspects, who are believed to have participated in the smuggling of at least 2019 truckloads of cigarettes worth between the beginning of 2020 and November 40. several tens of millions of euros.
The news was told that inspectors temporarily seized several trucks, construction machinery, cars and money during the search...
According to the unofficial information of "Vijesti", the arrested persons were a very important link in the smuggling chain and the re-export of cigarettes, which operated for years from the Port of Bar to other markets...
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On June 15 of this year, the SDT was issued by the investigating judge of the High Court in Podgorica Goran Šćepanović requested that they be granted a search warrant, due to the suspicion that in this way the police could find traces of a criminal offense and items important for the further conduct of the criminal proceedings.
On the same day, the investigating judge issued an order confirming that the SDT's request against the suspected members of the criminal organization was justified.
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", the latest action is a continuation of the work of the Special State Prosecutor's Office and the Special Police Department on the affairs of the tobacco mafia.
For decades, Montenegro has been recognized in international circles as the "center of cigarette smuggling" in this part of Europe.
In the report of the European Commission from 2019, precisely in the period to which this SDT investigation refers, it is written that Montenegro was recognized "as a regional platform for cigarette smuggling and as an entry point to the European market"...
And in the report "Global Initiatives against Transnational Organized Crime" from that year, but also in the following years, it is stated that cigarette smuggling is the main form of organized crime in the Balkans, and that its center is Montenegro.
"... Where real and fake brands of cigarettes are produced and then smuggled through the Port of Bar to various EU countries, the Middle East and Africa," according to their report.
In that report, Bar is known as a hotspot for cigarette smuggling, i.e. foreign brands arrive via Bar for re-export, while cigarettes produced in Montenegro are transported further by smuggling routes...
Milošević remains behind bars, indictment soon
The Council of the Supreme Court, deciding on the proposal of the Special State Prosecutor's Office to extend the detention of the former director of the Revenue and Customs Administration, Rad Milošević, issued a new decision according to which he will remain in custody in Spuž until Wednesday, June 21, 20.41:XNUMX p.m.
The new decision followed after the Constitutional Court, on June 14, 2023, annulled the decision of the Supreme Court from March 20, 2023, when Milošević's detention was extended for another three months.
On that day, the Constitutional Court decided that there was no risk of escape, which was also the legal basis for extending the detention of Rado Milošević, who was arrested on December 20 last year on suspicion of organizing a criminal group within the UPC, suspected of having seized cigarettes ready to be lit. as it is believed, returned to the smuggling chain.
"This decision, respecting the legal reasons expressed in the Decision of the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, U-III no. 266/23 of June 14, 2023, in accordance with the provisions of Article 77, paragraph 2 of the Law on the Constitutional Court of Montenegro, was adopted by the Supreme Court panel composed of the president of the panel, judge Milenko Seka Žižić, and members - judges Marijana Pavićević and Zoran Šćepanović, after the entire case file was reviewed and the allegations of the submitted proposal for the extension of the defendant's detention were evaluated," the Supreme Court's announcement reads.
As "Vijesti" has learned, the SDT should file an indictment against Milosevic and the members of that criminal organization this week.
According to the order on the investigation, the members of the criminal organization formed by the suspected former director of the UPC were officials of the Revenue and Customs Administration - Elvir Adrović, Milutin Pejović, Željko Ivanović, Mihailo Saveljić, Radivoje Vujacić, Nebojša Adamović, Zoran Pavićević, Igor Pavićević, truck driver - Dalibor Brnović and several unknown persons...
Mandić testifies in the proceedings against Miloš Medenica
The arrested owner of a shipping company from Bar, Ratka Mandić, is a witness in the SDT case against Miloš Medenica, the son of the former President of the Supreme Court, Vesna Medenica, in the part of the indictment related to the cigarette smuggling of his criminal organization.
During her testimony in the investigative part of the proceedings, Mandić stated that she performed storage, shipping and transfer of ownership of cigarettes for the companies mentioned in the indictment.
At that time, she writes, she could not remember what goods she shipped or stored for the companies "Atlant Mont", "Sace" and "Architrav", but she also emphasized that cigarettes for these legal entities came from various parts of the world, both by sea and by land.
The criminal organization of Miloš Medenica, among other things, was accused of transporting cigarettes through the customs line during November and December 2019, in the territory of the municipality of Bar, avoiding the measures of customs supervision.
They did this through members of the criminal organization and companies, which bribed the defendant customs officers by allowing the defendants to buy cigarettes in the Free Customs Zone of Port Bar for the legal entity "Royal company".
Customs-free cigarettes were exported by trucks from the warehouse of the Free Customs Zone of the Port of Bar, using fictitious documents, and then delivered to the company in Nikšić via smuggling routes...
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