Police officer arrested for usury: interest payments due?

The fear of some usury victims from Boka Bay that if they go to the police station in Herceg Novi and report a loan shark, an officer involved in this illegal business will be waiting for them there proved to be justified - he was arrested yesterday Vladimir Jovic (42) who is suspected of taking advantage of the victim's difficult financial situation and defrauding a man from Nikšić of 160.000 euros in interest.

Nikšić police officers also deprived their colleague's brother of his liberty, Aleksandar Jovic (36), who is suspected of charging monthly interest on Vladimir's account.

That there is a problem, "Vijesti" was told at the end of January by a family from Boka who fell into the trap of one loan shark after another, and every attempt to report it to the police made the situation worse - before they returned home, the complete statement given to the inspectors, as they claim, was read from behind bars in Skopje to the head of a Kotor clan, the very one they had reported. It happened, the interlocutors of "Vijesti" explained at the time, that while they were sitting in the police station, they would receive an SMS from the Skopje prison: "We know where you are and what you are doing here".

"Vijesti" was not informed whether the arrested Novi police officer Vladimir Jović was one of those who reported the loan sharks to the person reporting them, however, it was unofficially said that it happened that those who came to report the loan sharks left the station with their work unfinished when they saw that he was on duty...

POLICE: SIX PERCENT PER MONTH

The Police Directorate announced yesterday that officers of the Nikšić Security Department, taking intensive operational measures and actions to combat usury, and in cooperation with officers of the Pljevlja Security Department and the Herceg Novi Security Department, and with the support of the Department for Combating Corruption, Economic Crime and Financial Investigations of the Sector for Combating Crime, and in coordination with the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Nikšić, deprived the active police officer of the Herceg Novi Security Department - Jović, of his liberty, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of usury.

"As presented in the criminal complaint, VJ committed a criminal offense by taking advantage of the poor financial situation of the injured party in July 2024 and giving him money in the amount of 50.000 euros, at a usurious interest rate of 6 percent per month, which the injured party paid him in the period from July 2024 to May 2025 in the amount of 3.000 euros per month, after which the injured party, due to the inability to repay the remaining debt, concluded a contract with VJ to sell the real estate of the company of which he is a co-owner, through which contract VJ obtained a disproportionate material benefit in the amount of approximately 160.000 euros. Also, police officers deprived his brother AJ (36) from Nikšić of his liberty, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of usury by aiding and abetting, because, as is suspected, on behalf of his brother, in the period from July 2024 to May 2025. "... he took money from the injured party once a month based on usurious interest and concluded contracts with the competent authority," the police statement reads.

They point out that their officers, while taking further measures and actions, temporarily confiscated several means of communication from Jovović, as well as the official identification card of the Police Directorate and the pistol that Vladimir Jović had handed over.

They also state that they searched two locations in Nikšić and Herceg Novi, used by Vladimir and Aleksandar Jović.

"During the searches, a certain amount of explosives and ammunition was found and seized, which will be the subject of expert examination at the Forensic Center," the UP said.

The security institution explained that the Jovićs will be taken to the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Nikšić within the legally prescribed deadline, with a criminal report.

They reminded that they are continuously and systematically implementing long-term intelligence projects "Loan" and "Značka", aimed at detecting, clarifying and prosecuting the criminal offense of usury and related forms of crime:

"...And the collection and analysis of operational and intelligence data, as well as the directing of efficient police and prosecutorial activities to combat usury."

"By order of the Director of the Police Directorate, in February of this year, two special teams were formed with the task of systematically and thoroughly investigating all reported, as well as operationally identified, cases of the criminal offense of usury, and to take all legally prescribed measures and actions in order to protect the personal and property security of citizens. The Police Directorate continues its activities to suppress this form of crime, with legally based mechanisms for identifying and prosecuting police officers for whom there is reasonable suspicion of committing these or other criminal offenses. Zero tolerance for illegal actions by police officers, because only a clean police force is a guarantee of strengthening trust, law enforcement and the rule of law," the Police Directorate said.

GREENERS ARE EVERYWHERE

Research by "Vijesti" has shown that usury in Montenegro does not affect one specific social group. People of all ages and profiles take money from usurers - out of necessity, because of debts, sometimes because of bad decisions. Almost all of them, however, share the same outcome: debt that does not decrease, property that disappears and fear that remains long after the money is gone. And often tragedy - divorces, suicide attempts, suicides...

In some cases, it all starts as a small loan, and ends with lost houses, stolen ancestral properties, fear in your own home, and the realization that in this "game" you are not a debtor, but a hostage.

Few people get out of debt without serious consequences and trauma. Security services have recorded dozens of suicides related to usurious debt. However, although many who fell into debt slavery took their own lives, their families continued to suffer persecution, because debt, like suffering, does not disappear when the coffin is lowered into the ground. Only then, in many cases, does chaos arise.

In this misery, a survey by "Vijesti" shows, the family has no time to understand or mourn the loss of their family member. Often, before the third morning, they realize that the debt has "ended" with organized crime groups.

Vijesti's interviewees and survey, as well as confessions told to journalists, show that loan sharks exist in all social spheres - from those with long criminal careers, including the heads of almost all organized crime groups, to civil servants, police officers, professors, and media figures... It also showed that there is no age limit for this job, which, according to the newspaper's interviewees from the security sector, involves several thousand people...