The investigation into fraud during the procurement of electronic border surveillance equipment, for which several Ministry of Interior officials were arrested in March 2021, has not yielded any results even after four years - it is still not known who paid one million and one hundred thousand euros for devices that were five times cheaper than expected and affixed false labels to them.
The Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica responded to Vijesti that they are taking all legally prescribed measures and actions in this case, and that they have requested international legal assistance.
"We inform you that the acting state prosecutor in the aforementioned case is taking all measures and actions provided for by law. Among other things, international legal assistance has been requested in the aforementioned case. The case is in the investigation process. In order to protect the interests of the procedure, it is not possible to provide more details at this time," said the prosecutor's office headed by the prosecutor Dusko Milanović.
They did not answer the additional question of whether they were under pressure because of that case.
Members of the tender committee for conducted public procurement of border monitoring equipment Tatjana Drobnjak, Vojin Rondović i Zoran Milić, members of the Commission for monitoring the implementation of that contract Bojana Lucic, Ivan Glomazic, Jurica Žarković i Zoran Lasica they were arrested on March 3, 2021.
On that day, due to health reasons, the handcuffs were not put on the hands Visnji Djurovic, a responsible person in the company "For Light", which participated in the tender and sells carpets, but a statement was also taken from her.
The police then announced the issuance of a warrant for Branislav Krekić, an authorized representative of the company "Makina sekjuriti" from Belgrade, and the public was never informed whether he was also arrested.
That group is suspected of abuse of official position, unscrupulous work in the service, accepting bribes...
A day later, a press conference was held, stating that no work in the Ministry of the Interior could have been carried out without the knowledge of the former minister. Mevludin Nuhodžić, nor the procurement of border monitoring equipment for which eight people were arrested.
Commenting on the statements of the then State Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Rada Milosevic, Nuhodžić said in March 2021 that he expects the authorities to investigate the case to the end and repeated that earlier, acting on an anonymous report, he ordered that all documentation be submitted to the authorities.
The day after the pompous press conference, the Podgorica Basic State Prosecutor's Office lifted the detention of the arrested, explaining that all witnesses had been heard.
Since then, the “Border” case has been under investigation.
The procurement of border surveillance equipment cost 1.144.850 euros.
The embezzlement was discovered in 2021 by an Interdepartmental Commission formed by the then Minister of Internal Affairs. Sergej Sekulovic.
After the arrest of the suspects, it was explained that they were EU direct budget support funds through the Schengen Action Plan.
At a press conference four years ago, Milošević explained that among those arrested were two members of the interdepartmental commission formed by Minister Sekulović, Žarković and Lasica.
The two are charged with negligent performance of duties, abuse of official position, and Lasica is also charged with accepting a bribe.
The entire group is suspected of abuse of official position, unscrupulous work in the service, accepting bribes.
From the conference, where the then Deputy Prime Minister spoke Dritan Abazovic, Milošević, the then main prosecutors Nikola Boricic i Vukas Radonjic and now a suspended police officer Dalibor Medojevic, the former leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was accused of providing access to cameras to a third party.
Milošević then claimed that a non-Montenegrin company could remotely access video surveillance of border crossings in Montenegro.
However, it was also said that the equipment is not functional.
Arrested, then arrested
A year after the conference where they boasted about their results, Dalibor Medojević was arrested on the orders of the Special State Prosecutor's Office for alleged ties to the heads of the Skaljari criminal clan, now deceased. Igor Dedović i Jovan Vukotić.
The SDT accuses him of using the encrypted Sky application to inform members of the Skalja clan of the names of the inspectors investigating them, the cases they are handling, and the progress made in the investigations of murders in which soldiers of that organized crime group are suspected.
In front of the prosecutor and the policemen, he denied that he was hidden behind a nickname Radonja, exchanged thousands of incriminating messages with the bosses of the Skaljari gang.
According to Europol documentation, he had only nine contacts with whom he communicated via the Sky application, three of which were the numbers of the murdered crime clan boss Jovan Vukotić, one of his brother's Igor Vukotić and a number of the liquidated Igor Dedović. The others were not identified.
Europol's findings indirectly mention a conference at which Medojević spoke about the implementation of the Border case, more precisely, it is stated that on that day he received a message from Jovan Vukotić that he was glad to see him close to "brother Abaz" (author's note: Dritan Abazović). This is the only time that Abazović is mentioned in their communication.
He was handcuffed by order of the now arrested special prosecutor Saša Čađenović, accused of working for a crime team opposed to the skaljars - the kavački clan.
Medojević's detention was lifted after the murder of Vukotić in Turkey, in September 2022.
A year and a half after the conference, another speaker at the gathering, Rade Milošević, was arrested.
He was handcuffed by members of the Special Police Department, on the orders of the SDT, on suspicion that he was part of an organized ring that was stealing and smuggling some of the cigarettes that the state confiscated that summer in the Free Customs Zone of the Port of Bar.
Milošević and several other officials of the Revenue and Customs Administration were then suspected of the criminal offenses of creating a criminal organization, abuse of official position, and cigarette smuggling.
An indictment in that case has not yet been filed.
Bonus video:
