The Skaljar cell of the Balkan drug cartel hired two Australians and a man from Hong Kong to take over almost two tons of cocaine on the high seas and deliver it to the Australian coast, according to documents that "Vijesti" has access to.
Jackson Ross Giles Adams, Christopher John Precha i Man Wa Chan They were arrested in August 2020 on the trawler “Coralynne”, after taking cocaine from an operation involving at least two other vessels about 190 nautical miles east of Newcastle.
Australian investigators then reconstructed almost the entire operation at sea, but were unable to determine who was behind the three arrests. According to the suspicions of Montenegrin special prosecutors, the answers to some of these questions were provided by correspondence from the once protected Sky application.
It is part of an international criminal network led by the now-deceased leader of the Skaljarci. Goran Vlaović called Goro.
The criminal network to which the Special State Prosecutor's Office claims Giles Adams, Preča and Čan belonged also included the fugitive leaders of several branches of the Skaljari cell of the Balkan drug cartel. Radomir Boban Bacovic i Ivan Đonović, Milan Tisma, Tuzani Leon, Kristijan i Victor Dreshai i Vjekoslav Lambulić.
Coordinated meeting at sea
The large fishing vessel “Zhi Vu Yun”, sailing under the Chinese flag, was spotted in Australia’s exclusive economic zone off the east coast of New South Wales on August 13, 2020. The vessel did not have a permit to fish in Australian waters.
On the same day, at six minutes after 13 p.m., a shrimp trawler named “Coralynne” sailed from its berth in Newcastle and headed directly towards the Chinese-flagged ship...
The following day, Australian authorities determined that the Coralynne was still sailing towards that ship and had sailed about 190 nautical miles east of Newcastle...
At 6:01 p.m., Royal Australian Air Force personnel, using radar and infrared technology, spotted a third, small, fast vessel heading directly from the Zhi Vu Yun towards the Coralynne.
Based on what they saw, they concluded that all three vessels were acting in a coordinated manner.
At 10:50 p.m. the vessels separated, and the “Coralynne” headed back towards the Australian mainland.
At approximately 9:48 p.m. on August 15, the New South Wales Police vessel Nemesis intercepted the Coralynne about 150 nautical miles off the state's east coast. As the police approached, officers saw someone throw a black sports bag into the sea. The bag was never recovered.
After the officers boarded the fishing trawler, they found Australians Jackson Ross Giles Adams and Christopher John Precha, as well as Man Wa Chan from Hong Kong.
Documents in the possession of "Vijesti" show that the police ordered Preča to sit down, which he refused, shouting something like: "No, there's a fire"... At the same time, he pointed at the investigators towards the hull of the ship.
The officers then noticed a fire in the hull. Official records state that the flames were getting stronger, but they also noticed a large amount of fuel on the surface of the sea next to the side of the ship.
They extinguished the fire and during the first check of the fuselage, they noticed a large number of packages. One was opened and a white substance was found inside. Many of the packages were damaged and opened due to the fire.
A thorough search of the trawler was carried out over the next three days. A total of 77 packages wrapped in jute cloth were found. One was on deck and the other 76 were in a storage area in the hull.
Australian investigators' files show that the packages were tied with thick red or green rope and each weighed about 25 kilograms. Each of these packages contained approximately 25 smaller packages, wrapped in brown tape, weighing about a kilogram. They contained compressed white powder. Some of the blocks had logos stamped on them: "Baron", "TNT" or "Uno".
They counted a total of 1.890 individual packages. Analysis determined that each package contained cocaine.
Skaljari bosses revealed by Sky
Although they managed to piece together the puzzle, establish when the trawler was purchased for around 140.000 Australian dollars and that the buyer was a person associated with Giles Adams, and that the Australians had been preparing the cocaine seizure for months, and that Chan, according to the facts accepted before the Australian court, was only involved in the operation on August 7th or 8th, Australian investigators knew almost nothing about the wider criminal organization and the individuals behind this illegal business.
The files in the possession of "Vijesti" show that they had no evidence about the identity of the organizers of the smuggling, the source of the cocaine, the foreign suppliers, the people who recruited Giles Adams, Preča and Chan, nor about how the three men received instructions.
Part of what the Australian investigation failed to clarify at the time, according to the newspaper's findings, was later determined by analyzing correspondence from the once-protected Sky app, which was provided to officers of the Special Police Department and the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT).
These documents show that the now deceased Goran Vlaović, along with another, currently unidentified person, issued orders through Skaje...
According to the suspicions of special prosecutors, Vlaović and an unidentified organizer led a criminal organization whose members included Giles Adams, Preča and Čan, who were convicted in Australia for attempting to smuggle almost two tons of cocaine.
Montenegrin investigators have determined that the two leaders of the Skaljari cell of the Balkan drug cartel procured cocaine in Colombia and Ecuador, and then sent it by ocean-going ships to Australia, Belgium and other "markets".
The duties of Vlaović's colleague from the top of the clan were also to arrange the purchase and takeover of cocaine, recruit people for this illegal business, and organize the preparation of the drug for transport.
Investigators claim that through people under his control, he provided tools and equipment for hiding cocaine on ships, organized its storage and delivery to the coast of Ecuador.
From there, the drugs were transported by smaller vessels to ocean-going ships on the high seas, where they were reloaded and continued their journey to their final destinations.
According to the SDT, Vlaović's unidentified associate was also the key link between the heads of the organization and the people on the ground, the "operators" who transported the cocaine to ocean-going ships and organized its loading for the onward journey.
The criminal network to which the SDT claims Giles Adams, Preča and Čan belonged also included the fugitive leaders of several branches of the Skaljari cell of the Balkan drug cartel, the Tuški clan and Zećanin Lambulić...
According to the suspicions of special prosecutors, they were part of the Balkan part of a drug network led by the late boss of the Skaljarci Vlaović and an as yet unidentified organizer. The tentacles of that drug cartel reached from Colombia and Ecuador to Australia and Europe...
Separate clans, common business
All those identified by the SDT as part of Vlaović's cocaine network were previously known to regional and international investigators, but not as members of the same criminal structure.
For years, security services tied them to various teams, branches, and family crime groups, which had their own people, jobs, and zones of operation.
Correspondence from the once-protected Sky app, however, according to Montenegrin investigators, showed that belonging to different criminal groups was not an obstacle to bringing together people, money, and logistics when organizing large international cocaine deals.
In such operations, the boundaries between individual teams became less important than the common interest.
And the investigation into transnational cocaine smuggling seized in Australian waters showed that those previously identified as members of various criminal structures participated together in the procurement, transport, and distribution of hundreds of drug shipments.
Radomir Boban Baćović from Nikšić has been mentioned in security records and media reports since the 1990s as one of the most important names in the Montenegrin underworld, and after the liquidations of Igor Dedović and Jovan Vukotić, he was identified as one of the people who took over the leadership of the Škaljari cell of the Balkan drug cartel.
The SDT indictment against him has already been confirmed, according to which, back in 2015, he organized a criminal group responsible for murders, kidnappings, drug trafficking, and money laundering.
For years, Đonović has been identified as one of the key people in the Bar branch of the Škalja clan, and it was previously reported that he had moved part of his drug dealing from Montenegro to Belgrade and Spain.
Baranin Milan Tišma was arrested in Athens in 2019 in an operation that seized more than 104 kilograms of cocaine and 828.565 euros.
The Drešaj family from Tuzi has been a special criminal structure for years. In the police assessment of the threat of serious and organized crime, SOCTA, Leon and Viktor Drešaj were identified as the leaders of a closed family criminal group whose dominant activities are the smuggling of marijuana and cigarettes, and then cocaine. Investigators stated that the members of this group are connected by family ties, long-standing trust and common financial interest. Leon's son Kristijan Drešaj is also part of this structure.
It is the Sky correspondences, according to the SDT, that show that members of these seemingly separate structures did not operate exclusively within their own groups, but rather connected when it was necessary to organize large international shipments of cocaine.
Leon, Viktor and Kristijan Dresaj are also indicted in the “General” case, in which the SDT charges them with being responsible, along with other defendants, for the international smuggling of cocaine from South America to Europe and Australia.
Vjekoslav Lambulić has also been the subject of investigations for years for international drug trafficking. Since October 2023, he has been in custody on suspicion of creating a criminal organization and drug trafficking, and is also included in the indictment in the “General” case.
Baćović, Đonović, Tišma, Leon and Kristijan Drešaj are on the run, while Viktor Drešaj and Lambulić are already in custody in other cases.
See more:
Download the app and follow the news
FOLLOW US ON
