A long-time proven poacher from Albania was almost missing Verse T. seven days ago he again ended up in prison in Spuz, but despite the quick action of the navigational unit from the Sveti Nikola border patrol, he skilfully and in time managed to escape from our country to Albanian waters at Bojana near Reč and thus avoid arrest, "Vijesti" from multiple sources.
In a movie-like chase along the river, our border guards at one point came completely close to the poacher's boat, managed to hook him, but he quickly dismissed it and moved away, hiding in the river's cut, where the speedboats cannot approach.
A little later, the Albanian police also came to the scene, but allegedly did not take any action to find the perpetrator...
Ajet T., who often catches fish with current in our part of Bojana, has been under the scrutiny of Montenegrin border guards for a long time, but he allegedly has the blessing of the Albanian policemen from the Puljaj border patrol on the opposite side of the river where he docks and ties up a boat with equipment.
According to "Vijesti"'s unofficial information, he spent ten days in Spuž because of fishing with explosives in our waters, a decade and a half or two ago. Then he fought dynamite, switched to electricity and despite frequent hunting in our waters, due to the intelligence he allegedly has on both banks of the river, remains inaccessible to our authorities.
Whether the intelligence failed seven days ago, because our patrols were not in operation for a while, so he wandered along the entire course of Bojana to the mouth, or by chance, and perhaps like many times before, he brazenly swam into our waters, is not known yet.
It is known that our fishermen found it earlier also in the Saska channel, which is deep in our territory.
Last year, for poaching, he was arrested by the Special Team from Shkodër, who, according to fishermen from Bojan, hid the action from their colleagues from the Puljaj watchtower.
"Then his boat and equipment were confiscated, but after two months everything was returned to him. Now they are carelessly fishing again and illegally hunting both in their waters and in ours," the fishermen claim.
"Vijesti" previously announced that fishermen from Bojana protested on several occasions due to illegal fishing of fish at the common mouth of the river, which, they claimed, took place without the control of our and the Albanian border police.
Several of them, who asked that their names not be mentioned (identities known to the editorial office), say that poachers from Albania can be seen every day on the left, shared branch of Bojana, just like last year. They warn that poachers kill fish uncontrollably with electricity and dynamite, not paying attention to whether they enter our waters.
They claim that the poachers, led by a multiple offender, a certain Ajeta T., have the protection of Albanian policemen from the Puljaj border checkpoint, while our navigational unit was not monitoring the river at that time because both speedboats at the Sveti Nikola checkpoint were allegedly broken.
"We are outraged, many of our fishermen have given up hunting in the joint backwater because it has been left to poachers. Albanian fishermen are also outraged, but most of them remain silent because they do not want to risk reprisals from poachers. They complained to us that whenever they publicly protested about it, they found their boats broken the next day," said one of the fishermen from Bojana at the time.
Fishermen say that poachers catch huge quantities of fish, several hundreds of kilos at a time, using so-called inventra, which convert electricity from batteries from 12 and 24 volts to 220 volts, completely silently.
They also state that their vessels have an electric outboard motor, which makes hunting completely silent.
According to experts, fishing currents kill young fish in addition to adults, so one can only guess how much of a toll Bojana is paying due to uncontrolled and illegal fishing.
Full speed to Albania
Yesterday, it was confirmed to the "News" from the Department of the Border Police that certain persons have recently been detected illegally crossing the state border for the purpose of illegal fishing.
"The police officers of the Ulcinj Border Police Station, whose jurisdiction is the monitoring of the state border on the Bojana River, in the previous period, on several occasions, carried out actions of increased monitoring of the state border on the Bojana River, with the aim of observing and locating persons who engage in illegal fishing and that they be processed by the competent authority", it is written in the answer to the questions of "Vijesti", which is signed by the head of the Border Control Department of the Border Police Sector Velibor Vučinić.
It is stated that the goal of the actions is to check existing and collect new information regarding interesting phenomena in the area of the Bojana River.
"Recently, certain persons have been detected illegally crossing the state border, engaged in illegal fishing, and police processing is still ongoing. The most common modus operandi is when the border police patrols locate a vessel in the immediate vicinity of our coast in the act of poaching fish, our patrols try to stop it with sound and/or light signals, which they ignore and at full speed leave our waters and cross into territorial waters of the Republic of Albania. Then they run the vessel aground on improvised piers on the coast, discarding things from the vessel, most often fish, batteries and/or some smaller electrical devices - current converter, probe, etc. and disappear in the depths of the territory of the Republic of Albania", the letter says.
It is added that the border police of the Republic of Albania are immediately notified of such events, in order to take further measures and actions to identify the person.
"I emphasize that in addition to regular patrols, actions - increased surveillance of the state border, with the use of technical means for monitoring the state border (day and night surveillance devices, thermal imaging cameras, drones, etc.), joint patrols with the police officers of the Republic are also planned Albania, where special attention is paid to the prevention and capture of persons engaged in illegal fishing", Vučinić said in his reply.
Bonus video: