Security services know who the people who are predominantly involved in usury in Montenegro are, there is intelligence on this and the usurers are under some kind of observation, but authorities claim that it is difficult to provide evidence to prosecute them for a criminal offense that carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.
The police recently told "Vijesti" that the most common obstacles to detecting and prosecuting usury are the lack of cooperation of the injured parties, the abandonment of reports, and the failure to report the criminal act.
However, according to a survey by "Vijesti", some citizens claim that they are not allowed to report due to fear of retaliation, while the majority say that they are talking in vain, because, they claim, some police officers are also involved in this illegal business...
From the south to the north of Montenegro, sources of "Vijesti" claim, every name of usurer has been recorded. Data from the security sector shows that there is not a single criminal group that is not engaged in this illegal business, claim several sources.
The same is confirmed by research that precisely lists the names of loan sharks who, as citizens claim, mostly did not report them out of fear for themselves and their families, fear of revenge, consequences, or distrust of institutions, especially the police.
Most of them revealed that they borrowed money from clan members, who are recognized by the security sector as the most drastic organizers and actors of usury.
Several "Vijesti" interlocutors from that sector explain that money acquired through various criminal acts, primarily drug and cigarette smuggling, is multiplied in this way by all the major Montenegrin organized crime groups - "Kavačka", "Škaljarska", the clan of brothers. Saric, brothers Dress up, Ranko Radulović, organized criminal group (OKG) Roganović, OKG Vuk Vulević, Igor Krstović, Safet Kalić, Zdravko Kosanović, Vukasin Vojinovic, Danilo Djurovic, "Prčanjska" organized crime group, clan Stanimir Radulović i Milorad Krivokapić, as well as the clan once ruled by the now deceased Branislav Brano Mićunović, as well as many other criminal groups and individuals.
"Vijesti" was told by several sources that the son of a former high-ranking official of the Democratic Party of Socialists and former mayor of Podgorica once gave a million euros to a person of interest in security matters.
"To sell it further at usurious interest"...
In recent years, sources from "Vijesti" state, Montenegrin citizens have also been borrowing money at interest from foreigners, mostly citizens of Russia and other former Soviet republics. Among the foreigners being monitored by security forces for usury, a Russian citizen stands out. Viacheslav Pieshchev.
In the area of usury in Bijelo Polje and beyond, including outside the borders of Montenegro, with enormously high interest rates, for many years the most significant organized criminal group has been the now deceased Mevludina Kadića - Mela, then security-interested persons - brothers Martinovic, Denis Hele Durovic, brothers Kajevic, and individuals with surnames Lekovic, Petrovic, Bulatovic, Idrizovic, Rahovic, Halilovic...
"Members of the Kadić family also place funds through a number of intermediaries - Kolić, Brzać and others... In the past period, they have acquired property worth millions. In the Bijelo Polje area and beyond, there have been several incidents - armed or explosive device plantings, the cause of which was precisely the unresolved relations between moneylenders and their 'clients', or debtors," explains one of the interlocutors...
"Vijesti" sources state that in Kolašin, a retired policeman, now the owner of a restaurant, is lending money at interest, as are his brothers. Pekovic, Bulatovic and others, while in Rožaje, the brothers stand out as the main greengrocers Sabahudin i Sadudin Bećiragić, Asmir Kalac, Suvad Batko Music, including Iron i Denis Beciragic...
Denis Bećiragić said that he had never engaged in loan sharking, nor had he ever lent money to anyone.
"I have never dealt with this, I have never lent money to anyone without asking for interest, and if there is a source or relevant evidence that claims the opposite, then feel free to publish it. I do not own any real estate in my name, I live from seasonal work outside Montenegro," he said.
"During the previous period, the brothers Sabako and Satko Bećiragić lent significant amounts of money to a large number of people from the Rožaje area and beyond, demanding extremely high interest rates. In addition to individuals from Montenegro, the data shows that they hired several individuals from Sarajevo, originally from Novi Pazar or Rožaje, who intimidated those who did not pay interest regularly, and collected debts on their behalf, using other methods besides intimidation," claims an interlocutor from the security sector...
Mojkovac is not immune to loan sharks and loan sharking, either, as sources in "Vijesti" state, where the business is run by the Ašanin family, several Mojkovac residents, including members of the local cell of the Kavač clan - Goran Pantović and his associates Darko i Ranko Pantovic i Vladimir Ljujic...
Operational data obtained by "Vijesti" shows that the phenomenon of usury is also significantly expressed in Berane, where the main carriers of this illegal business are, according to "Vijesti" sources - Vuk Vulević, Vuk Ivanovic, brothers Rajovic, Draško Vuković, brothers Marsenić, brothers Nenadovic, brothers Jašarović, brothers Rocket, brothers Female, brothers Spalevic and individuals with surnames Drljevic, Dvorak, Babović, babić, Radičević, Peković, Agović, Ivan Biletić, Micović, Pešić, Ivanović, Kovačević, Radunović, Đurišić, Korac, Novović, Međedović, Milović, Stijović, Lutovac, Šćekić...
Vicious circle
Some of the Berane loan sharks have been tightening the noose around the neck of a family from the north for years, one of the interlocutors told "Vijesti" whose brother, as he claims, first fell into a problem of addiction, and then into debt bondage...
He explains that the family was financially well-off, and that at first they didn't even realize what was happening. Later, they learned that he had taken on debt from several loan sharks - mostly criminals.
"Even when we found out everything, including that he owed money to criminal groups, like many of our fellow citizens, we were not threatened, but only because we were 'covering' him, or paying him. I would say that they gave him the money with an interest rate of 10 to 15 percent... In fact, our family has always made the mistake of paying, so we haven't had a problem so far, but I expect we will now, because the last one who came we told him - no more. So we expect problems every day, because they claim that, although 30.000 euros were returned, we should give them another 50.000 euros," he says...
He explains that they returned the last 30.000 euros in May last year.
"I think he gambled away twenty percent of it. I wouldn't say they offered him to do dirty work for them. The last time he asked the family to pay back the money, I asked him to report it and he told me he couldn't report eight people... My brother recently offered me his car to pay off his debt, and when I refused, the vehicle ended up with one of the loan sharks," he said.
They say they don't trust the police in Berane, but that if problems start, they will report everything.
"I think that all these loan sharks from Berane would not have been able to do this for so long if the police had done their job properly. Back in 2016 and 2017, we were asking how to report it, we were not directly suggested not to do it, but we were not encouraged either... I also know that many people here sign a debt acknowledgement with a notary. I don't think he did it. Regardless of the fact that I think the police are not doing their job well, if there are problems - I will report it," said the interlocutor of "Vijesti".
"Gambling, drugs, alcohol, then interest. It's a vicious circle. The addictions have been going on since 2015 and until recently. Now we've gotten rid of the drug addiction problem, after three attempts at treatment, because he was implanted with blockers. If it weren't for the blockers, we would still have that problem," he says...
Responding to the "Vijesti" questionnaire, which was filled out by 46 citizens of Berane, most of them discussed their own experiences or those of people close to them with loan sharks. They explained that they did not report them out of fear, but also because they feared that the police would protect them.
"He did not report it out of fear for his personal safety. In Berane, it is the main business in the city. They target young people without parents who get into debt because of gambling and enter into debt slavery until they take away the last piece of land, or house, their grandfather's property," wrote one of the respondents...
Another explains why they didn't report it:
"We knew we couldn't do anything because the police were protecting him. I think his uncle is an inspector in Berane"...
"Until I said I was going to kill them all, they stopped coming to the door, and the way they behave - they come like some rascals, for 700 euros you give them 210, if they are late the next month you give them 400 euros and it goes to 1.000 and more, and all the people of Berane know who they took everything from. There are many of them, but nothing," wrote one Berane resident.
Someone, however, complained that his uncle had broken up the family due to debt problems...
"...He broke up his family and scattered everything he had. He's still indebted to the Duke, who's threatening to take his house, the only thing he has left"...
Research by "Vijesti" shows that debt bondage does not only happen to the "irresponsible". Anyone can fall into it - both the calm and the hardworking, both the hardworking and the responsible, both the strong and the weak. The loan sharks are just waiting for a moment of weakness.
This is confirmed by the results of the "Vijesti" survey - some citizens took on debt out of necessity, when institutional assistance was unavailable or too slow, while a significant number went into debt to maintain a lifestyle beyond their realistic possibilities or to cover gambling losses, decisions that today, in a conversation with a journalist, they recognize as serious personal mistakes.
Whoever lends money or other consumable items and thereby contracts a disproportionate material benefit shall be punished by imprisonment for up to three years and a fine, reads the description of the criminal offense of "usury" in the Criminal Code (CC) of Montenegro.
If the usurer "takes advantage of the poor financial situation, difficult circumstances, necessity, frivolity or insufficient ability to reason of the injured party", he will be punished with imprisonment from three months to three years and a fine.
The Criminal Code stipulates that a loan shark can be punished with imprisonment from six months to five years and a fine if serious consequences have occurred for the injured party or the perpetrator has obtained material gain in an amount exceeding three thousand euros.
Delibasic gets half a year in prison for usury
Slobodan Delibasic, a resident of Niksic, was sentenced at the end of last year in the Basic Court in Niksic to six months in prison and a fine of 1.200 euros for usury.
According to the first-instance verdict, this Nikšić resident repeatedly lent money to fellow citizen NV during January 2025, agreeing to a disproportionate material benefit.
The verdict states that he lent money to the injured party, pursuant to an oral agreement, on several occasions, including lending 300 euros with the obligation to return 350, as well as 500 euros with the obligation to return 600 euros.
When the debt, according to court documents, reached 2.000 euros, Delibašić told his fellow citizen that he owed 2.000 euros in principal and another 1.000 euros in interest.
As a guarantee, they allegedly made a contract for the purchase and sale of an Audi A3 passenger car, owned by Vujović, at a price of 1.900 euros.
The injured party did not repay the debt, with interest.
In addition to the six-month prison sentence, the court also included in Delibašić's sentence the time he was deprived of his liberty from 2:40 p.m. on May 26, 2025, to 8:30 p.m. on May 28, 2025.
He was also fined 1.200 euros, which he must pay within 30 days of the verdict becoming final. If he fails to do so, the fine will be replaced with imprisonment, with one day of imprisonment being imposed for every 25 euros.
The court also ordered the defendant to pay a 30-euro court fee, while the costs of the compensation for the injured party's attorney will be decided in a separate decision.
Delibašić was also ordered to take a security measure of confiscation of the object - the vehicle purchase and sale contract OV 1180/2025.
The court instructed the injured party to seek the return of the audio device in civil proceedings...
During the proceedings, Delibašić denied that he had lent money at interest, claiming that he had lent the injured party the amounts "as much as he had", and that the idea of concluding a vehicle purchase contract came from the injured party.
However, the court, having assessed the statements of the injured party and witnesses, as well as the material evidence, concluded that the defendant negotiated a disproportionate benefit and committed the criminal offense of usury.
The indictment of the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Nikšić charged Delibasic with committing the criminal offense of usury, and the prosecutor's representative in his closing arguments fully maintained the filed indictment.
The injured party and his attorney, attorney Mirko Bogićević, supported the closing arguments of the prosecution, the verdict states.
Note: In the original version of the text, it was not emphasized that the individuals named Drljević, Dvoržak, Babović, Babić, Radičević, Peković, Agović, Mićović, Pešić, Ivanović, Kovačević, Radunović, Đurišić, Korać, Novović, Međedović, Milović, Stijović, Lutovac, Šćekić (Berane), Leković, Petrović, Bulatović, Idrizović, Rahović, Halilović (Bijelo Polje) were individuals, which is why one could have gotten the impression that they were brothers. Vijesti would like to express special thanks and apologize to the brothers Saša and Srđan Radičević, who, by sending us a response and denying that they were the ones in question, pointed out an inaccuracy that could have caused the wrong impression. We also apologize to the readers.
Note: In the latest version of the text, a statement by Denis Bećiragić has been added in which he denies that he is involved in loan sharking.
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