Owner of the car center "Rokšped" Sander Stanaj and owner of the company "Rokšped" Nuo Stanaj are on the list of persons under investigation by the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT), who are suspected of having been at the top of a criminal organization for years, which has damaged the state of Montenegro for millions of euros through cigarette smuggling.
Sander and Nuo Stanaj were not arrested in yesterday's operation by the Special Police Department (SPO) and SDT because they have been outside Montenegro for a long time.
This is why the SDT will propose issuing an arrest warrant for them, "Vijesti" has learned.
SPO officers arrested the former long-time commercial director of "Rokšped" and the current executive director of the company "Plus" Prokopija Perić, which operates within the "Rokšped" group.
The company "Plus" was founded in 2015 for the wholesale trade of tobacco products, and Perić is also the director of the company "Lamex Commerce", of which "Plus" is the founder.
Perić was previously the director of economic and commercial affairs at the company "Rokšped", and in Montenegro from 2005 to 2008 he was the representative of the Niš Tobacco Factory.
In the media, he often warned about the damage the state suffers due to the shadow economy in the tobacco products sector...
Under his leadership, "Plus" achieved significant results, with the company having revenues of 2022 million in 58, and the business year 2024 ended with total revenues of 86 million euros.
Podgorica residents arrested in this case Dejan Milic i Radoje Dakić.
By order of the SDT, he was arrested and Mileta Simanić, who was also arrested in February 2024 as part of the case against the “Grand Team”, which was accused of cigarette smuggling and was headed by Aleksandar Mijajlovic.
The owner of a road freight transport company was also deprived of his freedom. Adnan Suković, who was identified by the SDT as a member and an important link in this smuggling group.
Suković was also arrested in October 2019 when police seized millions worth of cigarettes in the village of Vladne near Tuza.
Then the police found almost 2.000 packs of cigarettes in Suković's trucks.
During the afternoon, a man from Podgorica surrendered to the Special Police Department. Ivan Turčinović, who is under investigation by special prosecutors on suspicion of being part of a criminal group involved in cigarette smuggling.
He was not home when the SPO officers searched the apartment, but he returned from a business trip abroad in the afternoon and called the police.
During the afternoon, the SPO also arrested the owner of the company "MP ŠPED TRANS". Dear Madžgalj, which deals with road freight transport.
Four years ago, 585 cartons of smuggled cigarettes were seized in a truck belonging to Madžagal's company in Sarajevo, and BiH customs authorities announced at the time that the smuggled tobacco products were intended for the "black" market of the European Union.
Yesterday morning, SPO officers, acting on the orders of the SDT, searched the Stanaj family's villa complex at the Old Airport.
The suspected group is charged with creating a criminal organization and smuggling cigarettes.
The company "Rokšped" was founded in 1992, and then, over the decades of business, the company became a leader in numerous industries.
As part of the group, the Stanaj family founded the companies "Rokšped auto-centar", "Rokšped distributivni centar", "Tobacco S press +", "Štampa", "Olus", "Balkan Group Montenegro", "Home Depo"... in Montenegro.
"Rokšped Auto Center", owned by Sander Stanaj, is a company specialized in the sale and servicing of vehicles of the brands "Volkswagen", "Audi", "Seat" and "Cupra".
During 2024, the company generated total revenues of over 31 million euros, with an EBITDA result of 1,23 million euros.
More than two decades ago, the Stanajs expanded their business empire to the countries of the region: Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo...
In June 2021, the SDT launched an investigation against Sander Stanaj on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of money laundering and tax and contribution evasion.
The investigation was launched after the Financial Intelligence Department of the Police Directorate submitted information about a payment of 2,1 million euros to Stanaj's bank account. He claimed that the money came from his late father's pay slips. Roka Stanaj from the period 2008 to 2010.
Through a financial investigation of 11 members of the Stanaj family, including Sander, the police determined that the 2,1 million euros that Sander deposited into his account was not his father's money.
Police claimed that Roko Stanaj withdrew around 2,5 million euros from his personal savings account, which he deposited into an account at NLB Bank during 2008 and 2009. However, documentation that would have tracked the deposit and withdrawal of that money was not available because the 10-year deadline for keeping such data had expired.
By analyzing the payments and withdrawals of the Stanaj family members, the police determined that they deposited more than 3,1 million euros into their accounts and withdrew 2,2 million. Sander Stanaj led the way in payments with 871 thousand euros, and Nuo Stanaj in withdrawals with almost 484 thousand euros.
SPO officers yesterday arrested Dejan Milić, Radoje Dakić, Mileta Simanić, and Adnan Suković on suspicion of being part of the Stanaj brothers' criminal group. Ivan Turčinović, who is under investigation by special prosecutors, also surrendered to the police yesterday afternoon.
By October 2023, the investigation against Sander Stanaj, according to available data, had not been completed.
Nuo Stanaj was indicted in Serbia in 2011 for privatization abuses, along with Zoran Ćopić, whom the local media is linking to the accused from Pljevlja Darko Sarić.
In the 2011 indictment, the Serbian prosecution alleges that Nuo Stanaj, as one of the owners of the company "Agrocoop", participated in the illegal sale of property of the company IKL from Belgrade between August 2006 and February 2007, causing the company to suffer damages of 9,2 million euros.
At the same time, his late brother Anton Stanaj was sentenced by the Special Court in Belgrade to six and a half years in prison on charges of being the organizer of a regional cigarette smuggling criminal group that damaged the Serbian state budget by over 10 million euros.
He was then released on bail from a four-year detention, but was murdered in March 2013 at the company's headquarters in Sudan. Stanaj was killed by a company employee originally from Kosovo.
Bonus video:
