The smuggling activities of the group arrested yesterday in the action of the Special Police Department (SPO) were intertwined with the illegal businesses of the so-called "Grand" clan, as well as groups Milos Medenica, also accused of smuggling cigarettes.
This is shown by some of the names of the policemen arrested yesterday, as well as phone messages from the Sky application, which were exchanged by some of the defendants in the case against the former president of the Supreme Court. Vesne Medenica and her son Miloš.
Cops Predrag Vučurović, Dragan Backovic i Predrag Mijušković, then Saša Pekić i Srdjan Jokic, as well as from Podgorica Goran Janketić, were arrested yesterday morning in an operation by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (STP) and SPO officers.
The new action, according to "Vijesti" sources, followed several months of work on gathering evidence against the most important pillars in the multi-year, international cigarette smuggling scheme through the Port of Bar.
Police Department officer Backović was also deprived of his liberty in February, then as part of a group that, as SDT claims, he leads Aleksandar Aco Mijajlović.
Pekić, who describes himself as one of the heads of the smuggling team, was once one of the official co-owners of the company "Tehnomax", which is mentioned in a document of the Customs Administration from 2022 in the context of cigarette smuggling.
Yesterday, however, that company denied that the arrested person was still one of their informal owners, stating that "Mr. Vesko Petranović has 100 percent share in the company".
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His name, however, is mentioned along with Pekić's in the official document of the state body, which was sent to the Government on August 25, 2022, and then forwarded to the SDT.
In a schematic representation of the functioning, organization and hierarchy of cigarette smuggling, that state body also lists the name of the current owner of the company in addition to Pekić's.
In the Administration's extensive files on the most common smuggling routes, they state that at the head of that smuggling pyramid are allegedly members of the "Grand" clan, i.e. Mijajlović, and then the "Playmaker" company. Đorđija Đok Pavićević, and the company "Tehnomaks" is at the bottom of the ranking.
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Mijalović and Pavićević, as well as several persons related to him, have already been prosecuted for smuggling millions of cigarettes.
"According to operational data, the previously mentioned criminal activities were supported and secured by the company 'Tehnomaks', whose owners are Vesko Petranović and Saša Pekić from Podgorica, who, among other things, provided logistical support to related persons and team members of the so-called 'Bemaks' clan" , it is written in a document of the then Revenue and Customs Administration.
The "News" was told that the Special State Prosecutor's Office and the Special Police Department will continue the operation to arrest related persons who are suspected of having participated in cigarette smuggling or money laundering obtained through illegal business.
Skye
In one of the correspondence with Skaj from Miloš Medenica's group, one of the accused Marko Vučinić he answers the interlocutor's questions about cigarette smuggling, and in mid-2020 he states that "now there is nothing to do with that business..."
"Is there anything going on around cigars," asked the associate who wrote under the code B67S20.
The same person then says that he has a safe extraction "if necessary"...
"Kumara has Peconi cigars downstairs, if you have extraction... we can do that, it's a good hunt, since mine is not allowed to do that," he states in one of the messages.
He then adds that it is a "big hunt": "I have 3 tow trucks out, but not always, but in a day they have to do 3", he explains.
Then he says that he knows that "there are a lot of them", but that they can take money continuously... He also says that "Z. Đurišić has a contact", that he "worked with these guys from Texnomax, so they parted ways"...
"It's clear that they kill from techno max", stated Vučinić.
Police support
According to the official document of the Revenue and Customs Administration, the top of the smuggling pyramid from the "Grand" and "Bemaks" clan smuggled the brands of cigarettes "Merlin", "Trocadero", "FM", "King" and "Manchester".
"The most common transit of cigarettes took place through the Free Customs Zone of the Port of Bar. The countries of origin are the countries of the off shore zone, the Middle East, North African countries, the Russian Federation, the UAE, China, Turkey, Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Belarus, Albania, Greece, Cyprus, and the final destination is the EU market - Italy, Spain and Great Britain", it is written in the UPC document made while he was at its head Milosevic works (HURRY).
Milošević himself was later arrested on suspicion of having participated in cigarette smuggling, but that case has not yet received a judicial epilogue.
In the same documents, it is also written that up to fifty thousand packs of cigarettes "traveled" in one container, and that everything was done with the support of the forwarder.
According to that information, they arranged the paperwork that helped to smuggle tobacco products "under the guise" of other goods - plastic and glass cups, pet food, furniture...
"Based on the operational activities of the Revenue and Customs Administration officials, we came to operational knowledge that a part of cigarettes was placed on the gray market in the territory of Montenegro through illegal channels, while the other, i.e., a larger part, was distributed to neighboring countries, and they were hidden in to 'stock locations' in warehouses on the wider territory of Podgorica - Tuzi, Danilovgrad"...
In that document, it is explained that these activities were "strongly supported by certain high-ranking members of the Police Administration".
"Who are involved in criminal structures, as evidenced by numerous reports of EUROPOL and international investigations".
The News has no information on whether the SDT investigation has anything to do with the UPC document.
Information from the service helped
"Vijesti" previously published part of the files of special prosecutors, according to which police officer Dragan Backović saved 800 packs of cigarettes from Golub Vojinović, transferring confidential official information to him.
During the dislocation of these illegal products, a member of the criminal group nicknamed Lauda helped them, SDT claims.
In their files against the so-called "Grand" clan, it is stated that this border policeman used a phone with an application for protected communication and thus delivered police information to a colleague from a criminal organization that helped them smuggle tobacco products.
According to the prosecutor's documents, Backović provided the confidential reports by performing police work, so he informed the associate from the group that police officers from the organizational units of the police from Podgorica were undertaking official actions in the direction of detecting criminal acts.
"In what way did he obtain a benefit in the form of the disposal and use of information from the Police Administration, enabling him to use the data and information thus obtained to direct his actions and hide 800 packages of duty-free cigarettes of various types that the defendant Golub Vojinović hid on a truck trailer, at an unspecified location location on the territory of Podgorica", the files state.
The special prosecutors state that, in order to avoid being discovered, the two of them, together with several other unidentified members of the criminal organization, two of whom have the nicknames Snićko and Lauda, hid the mentioned non-customs cigarettes.
Vučurović worked as a commander in the Border Police
The arrested Predrag Vučurović worked as a commander in the Border Police in Plužine, while Srđan Jokić is the brother of Dejan Jokić, who was arrested in an operation against the so-called "Grand" clan.
The "News" was told that the Special State Prosecutor's Office and the Special Police Department will continue the operation to arrest related persons who are suspected of having participated in cigarette smuggling or money laundering obtained through illegal business.
The founder was honored by Metropolitan Joanikije
Suspect Saša Pekić was honored on Ognjena Maria in the summer of 2022 by Metropolitan Joanikije of Montenegro and the Littoral, as the greatest founder of the Serbian Orthodox Church in the restoration of the Church of the Archangel Michael in the village of Krnjice in Crmnička Nahija.
The head of the Metropolitanate of Montenegro and the Littoral awarded Pekić with a golden image of Saint Peter II - the Secret Seer of Lovcen, for "the selfless help and active love shown in the painting of the temple of Saint Michael the Archangel in Krnjice".
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