Smuggling of cigarettes under the patronage of customs officers: 37 million taken from 35 haulers?

The Special State Prosecutor's Office is processing more evidence on the basis of which they will most likely soon again expand the investigation in the case against members of a criminal organization that they claim have participated in an elaborate cigarette smuggling scheme for years, which the state confiscated and undertook to destroy under the auspices of the Revenue Administration and customs.

A package from the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation - Europol arrived in April this year, which is why the investigation against the suspected group, which according to SDT files was allegedly formed by the former director of the Revenue and Customs Administration, Rada Milošević, could not be completed. in six months.

"The LM848IP intelligence package, with encrypted SKY ECC communication, for 2019 and 2020 was delivered from Europol. After its analysis and the collection of certain personal evidence, on June 20 it was decided to expand the investigation against four defendants, for the new criminal offenses of creating a criminal organization and accepting bribes, but also against other defendants, natural and legal persons, for the criminal offenses of creating a criminal organization, smuggling and illegal trade", says the announcement of the Special State Prosecutor's Office.

According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", Sky transcripts that arrived from Europol show that the members of the criminal organization, which he formed in 2018, escaped Ivan Mickovic, in the period from the beginning of 2019 until the formation of the Government at the end of 2020, managed to smuggle 37 truckloads of cigarettes that the members of the then committee for the destruction of cigarettes of the Revenue and Customs Administration were supposed to burn.

According to the "Vijesti" source, the data obtained by SDT indicate that during that period, the criminal organization, whose members were suspects and Marko Mickovic, Ratka Mandic, Mileta Simanić, Đoko Lješković i Rajko Đurović, earned at least 35 million euros.

SDT believes that those with the suspected members of the commission for the destruction of UPC - Zoran Pavićević, Igor Pavićević, Milutin Pejović i Nebojš Adamović had a scheme according to which more than 90 cigarettes, which the UPC was supposed to destroy, ended up on the black market again, instead of in the ovens.

"Vijesti" has learned that there is no communication within the encrypted Sky ECC package that is linked to Rado Milošević, but intelligence data has arrived that shows that the method of committing the crime during the alleged destruction of cigarettes from 2019 to the end of 2020 coincided with what was done last summer, while the URA GP functionary was at the head of the Revenue and Customs Administration.

During the two periods, although there was a change in the director of the Revenue and Customs Administration, the composition of the commissions for the destruction of cigarettes was almost the same. In the period from 2018 to 2020, the President of the Commission was the suspect Zoran Pavićević, while the members were Igor Pavićević, Milutin Pejović and Nebojša Adamović. The four of them with several other suspected colleagues Elvir Adrović, Zeljko Ivanovic, Mihail Saveljić i Radivoj Vujacic they were also members of the commission at the time when Rade Milosevic issued an order for the destruction of cigarette packages, which the state confiscated in the Port of Bar.

"Zoran Pavićević, as an official, the president of the Commission for the destruction of seized goods, cigarettes in the Customs Administration of Montenegro, directly bribed the defendants Igor Pavićević, Pejović Milutin and Adamović Nebojša, as members of the Commission, that the defendant Pavićević Igor, Pejović Milutin and Adamović Nebojša do not perform an official action that they should have performed, and to perform an official action that they should not have performed, and which bribe the defendants Pavićević Igor, Pejović Milutin and Adamović Nebojša directly received for that purpose, in such a way that, after they would have the director of the Customs Administration of Montenegro signed an order for the issuance of customs goods - cigarettes, with the aim of destroying them in the furnaces of the factory 'Javorak MB' DOO Nikšić, the suspect Mileta Simanić and the workers hired by the suspects Mićković Ivan and Mićković Marko, after the cigarettes in question arrived in the aforementioned circle factories in Nikšić, five percent of them were loaded into smaller cargo vehicles, in the presence of the president and members of the said Commission and the suspect Durović Rajko, who was guarding them," is part of the SDT file against the suspected group.

The Prosecution believes, as stated, that the suspect Ratka Mandić, as an authorized representative of the legal entities "Arhitrav LTD Delawere", Atlant Mont LTD" and "Sace LTD Delawere", which are users of the Free Zone of Luke Bar, agreed with Marko Mićković on the sale of cigarettes and filed a request for the waiver and assignment of cigarettes in favor of the Customs Administration, even though she knew that the cigarettes would not be destroyed in the premises of the "Javorak MB" factory in Nikšić.