LIBERTAS How Mrkić and Vasović arranged arrests in August 2020: "Push the prosecutor and attack immediately"

This emerges from the transcripts of the conversations on the Sky app conducted by the accused Mrkić and Vasović, which Europol provided to the Montenegrin investigative authorities.

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Arrested head of the criminal police in Bar, Ilija Vasović, Photo: Luka Zeković
Arrested head of the criminal police in Bar, Ilija Vasović, Photo: Luka Zeković
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

Aleksandar-Aco Mrkić, in August 2020, arranged with the head of the criminal police in Bar, Ilija Vasović, the arrest of the wife of his five-time godfather Milivoj-Šuj Pipović, Svetlana Pipović, and her brother, Savo Vujošević, writes Libertas.

During those days, Mrkić insisted that Vasović push the prosecutor, a certain Raš, to issue an arrest warrant, and at the same time advised that police officer on how to "inflate" the news and place it in the media.

This emerges from the transcripts of the Sky app conversation conducted by the accused Mrkić and Vasović, which Europol provided to the Montenegrin investigative authorities.

Pipović and her brother Vujošević, then president of the Bar board of Demos and a candidate on the Democratic list, were arrested, following correspondence between Mrkić and Vasović, on August 24, 2020, on the order of the state prosecutor in Bar.

The police announced at the time that they were arrested for weapons and ammunition, which were found in the basement of a building in Bar almost a month and a half earlier.

Milivoje Pipović claimed on December 17th last year, testifying at the Higher Court in Podgorica in the proceedings against the five-time godfather, accused of cigarette smuggling, that the fugitive Mrkić allegedly ordered the arrest of his wife Svetlana and brother-in-law Vujošević through the now detained police officer Vasović.

"I am aware that Mrkić arranged for them to be arrested for weapons. Vasović planted my wife's DNA on one of those weapons. He wanted to do the same with my brother-in-law's DNA, but he failed," Pipović said at the time.

Testifying at the trial of Mrkić's criminal organization, he said that he "thinks that Mrkić targeted his family because he went to the processions with his wife Svetlana."

Pipović also claimed at the time that Mrkić was alluding to his brother-in-law Vujošević, who was a member of the Board of Directors of the Port of Bar, when he threatened that "someone would pay with their head" for the "crash" of the cigarette truck.

Pipović also said at a hearing at the SDT on December 25, 2023, a month before the indictment against Aleksandar Mrkić was filed, which also included former police chief Veselin Veljović.

Veselin Veljović
Veselin Veljovićphoto: Luka Zeković

"In addition to being my five-time godfather, we studied together in high school and later at university. I was on good terms with Mrkić until the second half of 2020. The first disagreements began in 2018, and they related to the celebration of my son's birthday. Although I think this was not the only reason, but he used this situation to start the brawl. From that moment on, Mrkić targeted my family and I think that the proceedings before the Basic Court in Bar against my wife for illegal possession of weapons are being conducted solely because Aleksandar Mrkić set it up," Pipović said at the end of December 2023 at a hearing with prosecutor Jovan Vukotić.

Pipović then, as well as during his testimony at the Higher Court in Podgorica, characterized his godfather Mrkić as "a very vengeful, powerful and dangerous man."

"What about the DNA for Sava. Will they make fun of him, what do you think? Or someone?? When will the DNA... You start with the newspapers right away... Insert a little and cut it into the newspaper articles. As a report. Let it say that she also has DNA. And let them both go to court," wrote the now-indicted cigarette smuggler, Aleksandar Mrkić, to police officer Vasović on August 18, 2020.

An indictment was filed against that police officer for abuse of official position and membership in Mrkić's criminal group.

On August 20, 2020, four days before the arrest of his best man's wife and brother-in-law, Mrkić repeatedly asked Vasović "when will the DNA be available".

"Immediately attack. And what if it's not on Friday. And if it coincides with the sister and brother. And the brother is not strong. What does 10 on three mean? Now chase Raša immediately, the weekend is coming. Let the order knock on your door today. What is the procedure now? Push Raša. Tell Seka and him for 72 hours so that he will accept the returnee three times directly to Ziks. Look... do whatever you can to lock him up," Mrkić writes to Vasović on August 20, 2020.

He then promises him "a liter of juice" if, as he wrote, "you lock Seka up for 72 hours."

"Let me wait to see what the prosecutor says and then tell him to run. Will I? When will you have that warrant in your hands? Tomorrow is Saturday. Ada. Go and get it now. Now see the preliminary. Saturday is the day after tomorrow. And one article about the weapons found this morning, the investigators are waiting for the results. You don't mention the MP, but NN. So that they can hit the newspapers thinking they are clans," Mrkić writes to Vasović.

He insists that Vasović "immediately tell us by tomorrow" that "a large quantity of weapons have been found."

"Intended??? But on the way to finding DNA... like the question of who it was intended for... so investigators believe they are on the right track," Vasović writes to the police officer.

After two minutes he continues:

"Raise it a little. In a couple of episodes. If you have a good link. Let them insert that slogan from Bečić for Peace and Stability. Article below the article. Bečić and Lekić for peace. And below the weapons. And then BOOM. When the deputies of the Democrats for Stability and Peace are armed with bulletproof vests with ammunition of great destructive power."

Mrkić then suggests to Vasović that they summarize.

"And get weapons for the police and for anyone who attacks the church. There are still some, rest assured," Mrkić wrote to Vasović, stating that "there are probably more who are similar to Sava."

After 40 minutes, Mrkić again asks Vasović what happened to the order.

"Is there an order written for Sava and for Jugović's sister? It's going to be tight for the elections. Crazy house hahaha. Father. It's going to be a disaster. I have another scheme in my head. Let's see how I fuck their mother. I'm going to go diving. Look, push this for Sava as soon as possible. So that he gets a media follow-up," was the message Mrkić sent to Vasović on August 21, 2020, around noon.

That day, at 19.15:XNUMX p.m., Mrkić asked Vasović when he would bring "Sava and Seku" into custody.

"Hahhaha. Push him, let him shoot. Let him take the head. Come on. If he hit Bečić... Look. And they're making an obligatory arrest in an official car. On Monday morning, so that by the time he gets there, he can skip the night at the prosecutor's. Because if you bring him in early, the prosecutor will come the same day, and if you're late, he'll stay until tomorrow. So that Sava can take it for himself. Will the journalists come first or the arrest... how does that work unofficially?", Mrkić asks police officer Vasović.

Two days later, on August 23, Mrkić sends him:

"I'm really angry. They put the factory director in Mk on trial. They're kissing me, and they're listening to people who run a completely legal business and think that I'll forever be at peace with my heels together. Comrade has neither the power nor the knowledge to resist them... I don't know what's wrong with him. He's just interested in when I'll leave for Serbia, instead of creating a good atmosphere, he's afraid that I'll leave, so how can I stay, where can I stay? This is like a strangler against a strangler, hahahaha."

An hour after these messages, the escaped smuggler again asks police officer Vasović about his best man's brother-in-law.

"Look at that Sava in the media, they're going to shit themselves a little bit that there are weapons and that they'll be retaliated against. I don't know what Mago is waiting for with that. They need attention to distract them. Call him to go. When ordinary people hear that there are guns, they'll take to the streets. To get dragged into war. What do they need? Pump that up right away.. armed to the teeth.. arrests, etc.. so that readers can pull themselves together a little.. so they don't rush into civil war. The cross is a picture, the weapon is a picture. Trust me. That article can cool down a lot of hot heads. And you have it clear. Everything in black and white. And the slogan Peace in Me. That's their slogan. That's right. Peace seeks war. That's better. Armored ammunition.. then a policeman next to it.. then a sniper and something like that," Mrkić writes on August 23, 2020.

The day after these messages, Pipović and Vujošević were arrested.

A photo of weapons and ammunition sent to the media by the Police Directorate in August 2020.

"The Bar police, while undertaking activities to establish the facts regarding weapons and a large quantity of ammunition found in the basement of a residential building in mid-July, have identified and deprived of liberty persons associated with the found items," the Police Directorate announced at the time.

They stated that they found "a 7,62 mm automatic rifle, a submachine gun and a large quantity of ammunition" in the basement.

The then Demos party immediately reacted to the arrest of their colleague Vujošević five days before the parliamentary elections in Montenegro.

They claimed that it was an election stunt with political goals.

Unlike Vujošević, who was not detained after being questioned at the Bar prosecutor's office, criminal proceedings were initiated against Svetlana Pipović and she was found guilty of illegal possession of weapons and explosives.

Organizer on the run, one member in custody

The indictment, filed by the SDT in January and confirmed by the High Court in Podgorica in May last year, named Mrkić as the organizer of a criminal group that smuggled cigarettes from the Free Zone of the Port of Bar and laundered money.

In addition to former police director Veselin Valjović, Mrkić's brother Nikola Mrkić, Predrag Veljić, Željko and Dušica Bulatović, Arsenije Kalezić, Mujo Nikočević, Stefan and Nikola Bubanja, Borislav Lečić, Nemanja Andđelković, Goran Gluščević, Nikola Bačilović and Sadig Elnagar were also charged with membership in this criminal organization.

Aleksandar Mrkić is on the run, as are Stefan Bubanja, Lečić, Anđelković, Gluščević, Bačilović and Elnagar.

All other defendants, except for Arsenije Kalezić, are defending themselves from freedom.

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