The Special State Prosecutor's Office believes that Dusko Golubovic acquired valuable family wealth in cash and real estate throughout Montenegro and abroad by laundering millions of euros earned through criminal activity.
The former agent of the National Security Agency (ANB) and an officer of the Police Directorate was arrested yesterday at around 8.30:XNUMX am in his family apartment in the Normal Company building, and then around noon he was taken out of the premises of the Special Police Department (SPO), after which searches began of property worth millions in Podgorica, which is linked to him or his family members.
SPO officers searched an apartment in Podgorica, a family house in Donja Gorica, and a magnificent business and residential complex with a SPA center and a swimming pool of over 900 square meters in that settlement.
The searches were attended by Golubović and his defense attorney, lawyer Velibor Markovic.
As the SPO list includes a lot of real estate throughout Montenegro, which is registered to Golubović or related persons, it is expected that searches will continue today on the coast and also in the north of the country.
Golubović was brought in for questioning by the special prosecutor last night at around 21 pm. Tanje Čolan Deretić, which is to decide whether to order his detention for up to 72 hours.
"We still don't know what exactly he is being charged with, because he was not brought to the prosecutor's office with a criminal complaint. There is only an order to search the apartment and other premises that he or his family members use, or that his family members used in the past," lawyer Marković told "Vijesti".
He claims that the order only mentions the criminal offense of money laundering, and that there is no mention of the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization.
"Some items were seized, but nothing compromising was found, that is, no item that would connect him to this or any other criminal offense," claims Marković.
"Vijesti" learned that several cars were temporarily seized during the search.
Marković: He has documentation.
The suspected former operative is charged with the criminal offense of money laundering under Article 268 of the Criminal Code of Montenegro.
"Vijesti" learned from sources in the investigation that during a months-long investigation by the SDT and SPO, numerous pieces of evidence were found of suspicious cash transactions, which were used to purchase valuable real estate in Montenegro, including in the most elite settlements on the coast, but also outside the country...
In addition, the SDT has also traced bank accounts through which, it is believed, suspicious transactions were made. Two sources of "Vijesti" claim that foreign partners have also assisted the Montenegrin authorities in the investigation.
Lawyer Marković claims in a statement to "Vijesti" that Golubović has all the documentation to prove how he acquired valuable property.
"We have documentation related to the origin of all of his property, certified by the competent authorities and entities with public authority," said Marković.
The lawyer confirmed the news that SPO officers seized some items during the search, but stressed that "nothing compromising was found."
"No object was found that would connect him to that, or to any other criminal offense," claims Marković.
Article 268 of the Criminal Code stipulates that anyone who, with the intent to conceal or falsely represent the origin of money or other property, or who acquires, holds or uses money or other property with the knowledge at the time of receipt that it originates from criminal activity, and if the amounts exceed forty thousand euros, the perpetrator shall be punished by imprisonment for one to ten years.
MANS: Illicit enrichment
In early 2024, MANS published a months-long investigation into Duško Golubović's assets, which showed that the retired secret agent's family spent over a million euros on real estate and luxury vehicles over a decade, disproportionate to their reported income.
Golubović claimed that the property was acquired legally and with the help of his family, and that he had never engaged in criminal activities.
The research showed that in 2013, his then 20-year-old son Luka bought an apartment, a luxury Audi S3 car and parts of business premises, with a total value of close to 200.000 euros.
The following year, Duško's wife Danijela, she bought a business space for 45.000 euros, which she gave to her daughter Sari.
A new contract with the company "Čelebić" was concluded in 2015, when Luka Golubović purchased two garage spaces for 13.000 euros in the garage of the building in which he already owns an apartment.
In the following years, Luka and Danijela continued to invest in real estate, the list included garages, apartments and expensive cars - a "Mercedes G Class" (105.000 euros), a BMW X4 (57.000 euros), a "Porsche Macan" (78.000 euros)...
In mid-2018, as reported by MANS, Duško Golubović also bought a 69 m² apartment in the "Normal Company" building, near the Podgorica temple, for a price of 93.000 euros. In the purchase agreement, Golubović states that he received the funds as a gift from his son Luka, while data from the Žabljak cadastre show that the older heir previously sold property in that city for the same amount.
The ownership of that property was later transferred to the name of his daughter Sara.
Just three months later, in October 2018, Duško Golubović acquired business space in the building next to Capital Plaza in Podgorica, measuring 127 m², as well as two garages, for a total price of almost 180.000 euros.
"In the purchase agreement, Golubović undertakes to pay a portion of almost 80.000 euros on the day of signing, and the remaining 100.000 euros within a year. Unlike the apartment purchase agreement, in this one Golubović did not state the origin of the money used to acquire the business premises with garages," MANS states.
In a family-business scheme, Golubović donates business space and a garage in that building to his younger son. Igor.
Upon his return to the security system in 2019, when the then director of the Police Administration Veselin Veljović appointed Deputy Head of the Department for Suppression of Serious Crimes, Golubović continues to acquire valuable assets.
In the space of less than three months in 2019, he purchased two Volkswagen Passat vehicles for a total of 56.000 euros, one of which was armored and had specific features.
At the time of the family's acquisition of the property, according to ASK data, the family's reported income was modest - Golubović earned 840 euros per month in the police, while his wife had only 450 euros.
Modest earnings were not an obstacle for the Golubovićs to save at the time. In 2019, he reported savings of 20.000 euros.
Two years later, Golubović's wife acquired two garages in the "Normal Company" building, where the family already owned two apartments at the time. The purchase of real estate that year continued with the registration of a 62 m² commercial space in the daughter's name, paid for 65.000 euros. The commercial space is located in a building next to Capital Plaza.
Data from the Podgorica cadastre for this commercial space, as MANS stated, shows that the Golubovićs did not buy it directly from an investor, but that the property had been traded before. The previous owner bought the space from an investor at a price almost 40 percent higher than the one he later sold to the agent.
Portrait of an agent: Golubović was followed by scandals
For more than two and a half decades, the arrested Duško Golubović was a secret service agent, and later an officer of the Police Directorate, and throughout his security career he was the closest associate of the accused operative and former assistant director of the Police Directorate, Zoran Lazović.
Two careers in the secret service ended in early 2015, but after four years of retirement, the two security officers crossed paths again in the Police Directorate.
The return of the two operatives occurred at a time when former police chief Veselin Veljović returned to the helm of public service, and then appointed Lazović as his assistant in the Organized Crime Sector, while Golubović was given the position of deputy head of the Department for Suppression of Serious Crimes.
Golubović retired in the summer of 2023, when he submitted a request to leave, after the decision in April of that year by the then SBPOK coordinator and head of the Special Police Department, Predrag Šuković, formally terminated the existence of that Department in the UP organizational chart.
Before that, Golubović was handed a placement decision at the Asylum Seekers Department in Spuž.
The decision to close the Department followed the arrest of former Acting Assistant Director of the Police Administration Dejan Knežević, on suspicion of being a member of a criminal organization, which caused all Department officers to be temporarily unassigned or subject to numerous investigations and checks...
Golubović's career at the top of the security sector was accompanied by numerous controversies and media allegations, and then by a research by the NGO MANS about the enormous, million-dollar value and disproportion of his assets to the salary he received in the state sector for decades.
A months-long investigation into Duško Golubović's assets and income showed that his family spent over a million euros on the purchase of several properties and luxury vehicles over a period of ten years.
Former Acting Director of the Police Administration Nikola Terzić said at the MANS anti-corruption conference in late 2023, among other things, that he did not feel comfortable when he "came into possession of information about colleagues who worked for criminal groups."
"Last night I received information that one of the former officers bought a vehicle for 300.000 euros, and until yesterday he was wearing a police badge. This is operational information," Terzić said at the time.
"Vijesti" announced a day later that UP operatives had received information that Duško Golubović had bought a "Lamborghini" worth at least 300 thousand euros, and that Terzić was actually referring to him.
Duško Golubović, along with at least 70 operatives, left the ANB in April 2015, after legal changes, because reforms in that sector were a key NATO condition for Montenegro's admission to the alliance.
Before these reforms, the public was shaken by numerous scandals related to the political-security sector and the conflict between opposing factions.
Golubović's name was mentioned in the "Listing" affair - the investigation into that case began in December 2011, after the publication of telephone communications between Darko Šarić from Pljevlja and then-Prime Minister Igor Lukšić and former Foreign Minister Milan Roćen.
After that, a listing of communications between accused drug lord Naser Keljmendi and Golubović appeared in the media.
The result of the investigation was that it was allegedly a matter of forgeries, but the public was never informed who launched the affair and for whose interests...
In November 2015, shortly after leaving the service, explosives were placed at the gate of Golubović's family home in Donja Gorica, previously in September at the "Grand" cafe, and in July at the "Machiato" cafe, which was owned for a time by Golubović's wife Danijela.
Golubović was questioned last summer in the investigation into the murder of the editor of the newspaper "Dan" Duško Jovanović, and he gave the statement at the time in his capacity as a citizen.
Duško Jovanović was murdered on May 27, 2004, and so far only Damir Mandić has been held accountable for that crime, and even after almost 21 years, it has never been revealed who ordered it or who the direct killers were.
"Golub only gives banks to children and no one else"
Duško Golubović's millions were mentioned in the summer of 2020 by Petar Lazović, an arrested security guard and the son of his long-time colleague, also accused Zoran Lazović.
He also discusses politics with Radoje Zvicer on Sky Communication, and during one session, he tells the head of the Kavača criminal clan in code that businessman Ranko Ubović "will break a couple of million" for just one election, at the urging of his father Zoran Lazović.
On August 9, in a group chat with the head of the organized crime group, Radoje Zvicer, and fugitive police officer Ljubo Milović, he sent hundreds of messages via the once encrypted application.
In his communication with the people of Kavče, he criticizes Golubović for not contributing financially to the policies they support...
"Brother, you know the situation yourself, bro. Whoever goes past Z and Tigar helps anyone, whoever goes past them gives except them! Only Z with his friends doesn't pretend and doesn't deny his friends, did it cost him anything? He could have millions like Golub, but Golub only gives to children, no more banks! Only Z and Tigar. Tigar breaks a couple of millions for the elections because Z tells him to, and this Z looks at his brother. You know all this. It's not that he's my Z, but that's how it is, people like him are you and Liam and no one else that I know of! You saw off every best man and helped and raised the village... and then it's my fault because the others buy the biggest cream! If it's not like this!", writes the younger Lazović to the head of the Kavač clan.
During the months-long investigation by the SDT and SPO, numerous pieces of evidence were found of suspicious cash transactions, which were used to purchase valuable real estate in Montenegro, including in the most elite coastal settlements, but also outside the country... In addition, the SDT also traced the bank accounts through which the suspicious transactions were allegedly carried out, "Vijesti" has learned.
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