Several pistols were stolen from the depot of the High Court in Podgorica, which are evidence against the leaders of the Kavaka criminal clan, while investigators are looking for six people who participated in the break-in, "Vijesti" learns.
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According to the same information, the surveillance cameras "caught" the suspects to some extent, but four of them were constantly masked with caps.
Despite this, the investigators requested that photo-robots be made of the defendants.
A source involved in the investigation told "Vijesta" that the suspects are most likely foreigners and that they arrived in Podgorica from neighboring countries.
According to unofficial information from "Vijesti", they will be responsible for criminal offenses - aggravated theft, obstructing justice and preventing evidence.
In the Botun area, the police found a van, which they believe was used by the suspects.
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The newspaper's source claims that the vehicle was parked almost all the time in front of the building where the tunnel digging began.
The interlocutor of "Vijesti" said that in addition to the gun, evidence from several cases was also stolen, but that they believe that the thieves deliberately made a mess in the sea of documents in order to hide what was their main target.
That someone had tampered with the evidence was discovered on the morning of September 11. Despite this, the officials of the High Court only found out after about 20 hours that the thieves dug a hole in the wall of that room, and from it a tunnel to the apartment in the building opposite the court, in Njegoševa street.
However, that morning, the president of the High Court in Podgorica, Boris Savić, told reporters that "almost nothing is missing" from the depot and that he believes it was prepared for the escape of one of the detainees/prisoners. Director of the Police Administration, Nikola Terzić, however, responded at the same time that he did not think that the criminals "were digging recreationally".
The 30-meter-long underground passage, with an opening measuring 70x60 centimeters, was most likely dug from the end of July until last weekend, when the thieves crawled into the depot.
Investigators initially lowered a robot into the tunnel, which filmed the entire area, and then the members of the Anti-Terrorist Unit went through that opening, removing clues that might help them in the investigation.
In the apartment to which the passage led, the inspectors also spent yesterday, looking for evidence in the cubes of earth and rubble left inside that room, in the basement of the building...
Almost the entire management staff of the Police Directorate and prosecutors were on the spot yesterday, and they were also visited by representatives of the executive branch.
After visiting the court premises and the apartment from which the tunnel to the depot was dug, Prime Minister Dritan Abazović stated that the mafia will not defeat the state, no matter how financially strong it is and how much support it has within the system.
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He pointed out that citizens are often not aware of the extent to which organized crime is involved in the state apparatus: "It is beyond what anyone can imagine. However, I believe that they have been decimated and that these are the moves of the desperate, probably in the direction of contaminating the evidence. But, as they have tried with some situations before, I think that this one was thwarted in one way or another. We need to see that those who did this are brought to justice," he said.
The Prime Minister also said that organized crime normally works by involving people everywhere, in all institutions, but that he thinks this is an attempt at a coordinated action that was thwarted.
After the session of the Bureau for Operational Coordination of the Intelligence and Security Sector (BOK), it was announced that this body concluded that this was the most significant and dangerous attack on state institutions and the judicial system.
"It was concluded that these were activities with a high level of organization and professionalism, which involved the participation of a large number of persons of different profiles... The activities undertaken resulted in the finding of several clues, which will be the subject of further processing and expertise, and at the same time we point out that they are currently undertaking intensive activities to identify six persons who are reasonably suspected of having participated in this event. In parallel with the mentioned activities, activities are being undertaken to find the masterminds of this criminal enterprise", it was announced after the session chaired by the Minister of Justice Marko Kovač.
Žižić: The work on the tunnel had to be heard
Former chief state architect Mirko Žižić told "Vijesta" that the tunnel to the High Court could not be dug in a short time. According to him, it must have been a long-lasting procedure.
"It is not known if they dug by hand or if they used 'moles' (machines). These are devices that can drill underground. Usually the structure, cables and pipes are routed in this way. Let's say under the road, where demolition cannot be done on the upper road, but tunnels are made instead. What did they use - I don't know, but I see that at the moment when they finished digging, they made a substructure to protect themselves, so that it wouldn't collapse", explained Žižić.
He believes that the tunnel was built for three months, and that there is a possibility that, as he states, "the whole thing was done much earlier".
"There is a possibility that decades ago something was started, continued, done. Based on the photos, I can see that the floor below is quite stabilized and it is noticeable that more people have been there and passed by. It is not a special construction intervention. It can be seen that it was done with a stick and rope, if we exclude the possibility that a 'mole' was used. There is a possibility that they did everything by hand. If this is the case, the process took longer. It's strange to me that the people from the building didn't hear, because it had to be heard," claims Žižić.
A tunnel too narrow to escape
Through the underground passage under the building at Njegoševa 12, Karađorđeva Street and part of the High Court building, one could only crawl - explained to "Vijesta".
"The dimensions of the opening indicate that it was not planned for escape, but for exactly what they did - contaminating and stealing evidence for very important proceedings against the leaders and members of organized criminal clans, dominantly the kavak. They obviously knew what they were looking for, because it was not easy to find crucial material evidence in a pile of evidence," said an interlocutor involved in the investigation to "Vijesta".
Another interlocutor from the security sector said that it is necessary to check whether the evidentiary material was contaminated in any way in the case of the murder of the owner of the newspaper "Dan" Duško Jovanović.
"The time of the beginning of the 'execution of works' on the tunnel through which the mafia reached the interior of the court depot coincides with the time when the state sought the help of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the investigation of the murder of Jovanovic. "It does not necessarily mean that this case was the primary goal of the mafia, but it cannot be ruled out due to its importance," said the interlocutor.
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