When, on the night of October 28-29, 2020, in the waters near Colombia, local police, based on intelligence from the headquarters of the US DEA bureau, managed to discover a speedboat carrying 710 kilograms of cocaine, numerous police and intelligence agencies around the world joined the investigation to discover whose shipment was worth millions.
That night, four smugglers were arrested, whose role was to load black packages weighing 25 kilograms each, stamped with stamps, a four-leaf clover, a horseshoe, and a rooster, onto an ocean-going ship sailing to Australia.
The smugglers set fire to and sank the second part of the cargo that night, before the police even reached their vessel.
Even in the early days, it was known that the valuable shipment of cocaine had been ordered and paid for by a criminal organization from the Balkans, which is why numerous police forces around the world joined the operation to uncover members of the clan, who had been purchasing the expensive powder in Colombia for an extended period of time.
In June 2021, in the waters near Australia, police seized a new shipment of 900 kilograms of cocaine, which was supposed to arrive on that continent from Latin America, and only three years later did the Special State Prosecutor's Office and the Special Police Department carry out an international operation codenamed "General", which included 19 people, on suspicion of organizing or having a role in the transport of tons of cocaine to the land of the kangaroo.
In this case, the SDT identified a man from Podgorica as the organizer of the smuggling of at least 2,5 tons of cocaine. Vasa Street and the fugitive head of the Kavač clan Radoja Zvicer, and among the members of the criminal organization are prisoners with long prison terms, such as Damir Mandić, but also members of the notorious "America" clan, active since the 1970s.
At the end of July last year, the investigation also included a Budvanin Ivan Delic and Beranac Vuk Vulević, who managed to leave Montenegro before their arrest, the brothers from Tuzi Viktor and Leon Dresaj, Vjekoslav Lambulić, Veselin Paro Pavličić, Vukan (Vinetu) Čoković Matić, Mileta Bozovic, Radule Bozovic, Milo Bacovic i Petar Miranović, Radovan Pantović, Radomir Dobriša, Marinko Prelević, Nikola Ulic...
This criminal organization is believed to have earned over 220 million euros if it had managed to ship cocaine to Australia.
In mid-January this year, the SDT submitted the indictment to the Higher Court in Podgorica, and the review of that prosecutorial act is underway.
New arrests
A new blow in Operation "General" began yesterday at dawn when officers from the Special Police Department arrested Baranin. Rajko Smolović and from Podgorica Novak Joksimović, who are suspected of having played a role in smuggling 2,5 tons of cocaine from South America to Australia.
The SPO's criminal complaint includes the son of a fugitive Tuzan resident Leon Dresaj, Christian Drešaj, who is believed to have been a member of this criminal organization, and who is currently on the run.
An investigation has also been opened against Arsa Šarić, a close relative of Pljevljak Darek i Duško Sarić, which is also inaccessible to Montenegrin judicial authorities.
The suspect Arso Šarić is also on the indictment of the Serbian Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, which in early 2023 charged Darko and Duško Šarić with Dejan Lazarevic designated as the organizers of a criminal group accused of a series of serious crimes, including the attempted murder of a witness-collaborator Nebojša Joksović..
The name of a Budva resident is also on the list of suspects. Davor Kordić, who has been in the Spuž Remand Prison since this summer.
Kordić was arrested on September 12th last year on suspicion of being part of the criminal group of fugitive Radoje Zvicer, which planned the murder of a resident of Budva. Marko Ljubiša called Kan.
SDT and SPO have been working on Operation “General” for years with the European Union law enforcement agency (EUROPOL), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
The clan organizers, Vaso Ulić and Radoje Zvicer, as stated by the SDT, recruited members of the criminal organization during 2020 and 2021, and then gave them instructions, provided them with money, exchanged and transmitted messages to other members of the criminal organization via protected, encrypted telephones, gave orders, and monitored the course of the criminal business.
Zvicer was designated as the leader of the Kavač clan and left Montenegro in early February 2021. Since then, he has been unavailable to Montenegrin investigators, who charge him in several cases with organizing brutal liquidations of members of the opposing clan, international drug trafficking, money laundering...
Vaso Ulić, known as the Montenegrin Pablo Escobar, has been a major target of police investigations by several major law enforcement agencies around the world for more than 20 years. He was arrested in late August 2017 on suspicion of being the leader of a drug cartel that smuggled drugs into Australia.
According to the SDT indictment, the defendant Damir Mandić had frequent communication from prison with Beran Vuk Vulević, with whom he exchanged important information about the smuggling business via the Sky application.
SDT and SPO possess a large number of messages, which were also sent among themselves by other members of the criminal organization.
The defendants individually invested money to purchase drugs in bulk, so Ulić and the Drešaj brothers gave money for 500 kilograms of cocaine, while Mandić gave a deposit for the purchase and smuggling of eight kilograms.
Joksimović is the brother of the driver of the former head of the ANB
Arrested Podgorica resident Novak Joksimović, whom the SDT believes played a role in smuggling tons of cocaine from South America to Australia, is the brother of National Security Agency officer Aleksandar Joksimović.
Joksimović worked at the Agency in recent years as a driver for former secret service director Boris Bata Milić.
Before that, Joksimović was the driver of former President of the Commercial Court Blaž Jovanić, but he transferred to the service at the beginning of 2022.
Several expensive cars seized
During yesterday's action by the Special Police Department, and on the orders of the SDT, several expensive cars were seized during searches in Podgorica and Bar.
The seized cars were parked yesterday in front of "Limenka", where the SPO headquarters are located. In addition to the criminal investigation, the SDT will also open a financial investigation against the suspected members of the group, who have come under attack in the continuation of Operation "General".
Bonus video:
