Nikšić residents Nikola Popović, Goran Orbović and Darko Purović were arrested this morning on the orders of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, which charges them with the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization and the continued criminal offense of smuggling.
The SDT investigation also included Dražen Vukadinović, Dušan Vukadinović, Branko Čelić and Vanja Žižić, against whom the Special Police Department (SPO) filed criminal charges for creating a criminal organization and cigarette smuggling.
The suspects Vukadinović, Čelić and Žižić are in custody in other criminal proceedings or are on the run.
As part of this investigation, SPO officers searched several houses and buildings of suspects in Nikšić, in order to collect evidence of criminal offenses from cases of importance to the proceedings.
"On the order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, the Special Police Department deprived NP, GO and DP of their liberty, and filed criminal charges against them, as well as against DV, B. Č., DV and V. Ž., who are in custody in other criminal proceedings or on the run, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization and the continued criminal offense of smuggling," the SDT statement reads.
Since February 2024, the SDT has launched several investigations and filed multiple indictments (some have since been consolidated and confirmed before the High Court in Podgorica) against criminal organizations throughout Montenegro, which are believed to have been involved in cigarette smuggling for an extended period of time.
The SDT estimates that criminal groups have damaged the state budget by tens of millions of euros through years of cigarette smuggling.
In addition to criminal proceedings, the SDT simultaneously launched numerous financial investigations and temporarily blocked the defendants' vast assets.
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