Former Mayor of Budva Municipality Milo Božović was arrested today at the gate of the Directorate for the Execution of Criminal Sanctions (UIKS), as part of the international operation "General".
Božović was supposed to leave Spuž today because the three-year deadline from the filing of the indictment, colloquially called the "police cartel" in the media, has expired, and a first-instance verdict has not yet been rendered.
Mileta Ojdanić, Vladimir Bajčeta and Milan Popović were also detained at the building of the Special State Prosecutor's Office (SDT) and the Special Police Department (SPO).
They were all brought for questioning from UIKS, where they have long been in custody on charges from other organized crime cases.
Božović was met by SPO officers in front of the Spuž Remand Prison.
The international operation "General" was launched in July 2024, and in the first wave, 19 people were investigated and later indicted on charges of organizing an international criminal group that participated in the smuggling of around 2,5 tons of cocaine to Europe and Australia.
Podgorica resident Vaso Ulić and fugitive Radoje Zvicer were identified as the heads of a criminal organization accused of smuggling cocaine, whose members included mostly prisoners with long prison terms, such as Podgorica resident Damir Mandić.
The criminal complaint in Operation "General" from July 2024 also included the President of the Municipality of Budva, Milo Božović.
SDT believes that Vaso Ulić, on September 27, 2020, created a group Sky chat with Mile Božović, which also shows correspondence between Ulić and the former mayor of Budva, who informs him who has been assigned to "receive and remove goods", but also warns him not to "spread the word" about this deal...
Ulić, as the SDT claims, was not only the organizer, but also a key link among the gang members who individually invested as much money as they had to purchase cocaine.
An indictment has also been filed against Ivan Delić from Budva and Vuk Vulević from Beranec, whose extradition from Belgrade is expected, as well as Veselin Para Pavličić, Vukan (Vinetu) Čoković Matić, brothers Viktor and Leon Drešaj, Vjekoslav Lambulić, Nikola Ulić, Mileta Božović, Radomir Dobriša, Petar Miranović, and Marinko Prelević.
Vaso Ulić was arrested in that police operation and, according to the indictment, he is accused of organizing an international network with Zvicer, in early 2020, to smuggle 2,5 tons of cocaine from Colombia and Ecuador to two continents - Europe and Australia.
The SDT claims that Ulić, just 18 months after concluding an agreement with the SDT during the time of Milivoje Katnić, connected with the head of the Kavač clan, and then gathered the "old guard" with whom, according to the prosecution, he invested five million euros to organize the overseas smuggling of cocaine.
The SDT claims that Ulić and Zvicer recruited members of a criminal organization.
In April 2025, Rajko Smolović and Novak Joksimović were arrested in the continuation of the operation, and the criminal report then also included Kristijan Drešaj, the son of the fugitive Leon Drešaj, Arso Šarić and Davor Kordić, who are suspected of having played a role in cocaine smuggling from South America to Australia.
The SDT and SPO implemented Operation "General" with the assistance of the European Union Law Enforcement Agency (EUROPOL), the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Australian Federal Police (AFP).
Milo Božović was first arrested on April 13, 2023, on suspicion of being part of a criminal organization, colloquially called the police cartel in the media, whose organizers were identified as Mileta Ojdanić and the fugitive police officer Ljubo Milović.
This criminal group is on trial before the Higher Court in Podgorica on charges of organizing the smuggling of 4,3 tons of cocaine.
During his defense, Milo Božović denied the charges, and in the trial in Operation "General" he also claimed that he had nothing to do with the smuggling of the cocaine cargo.
"I have no connection with this alleged criminal organization. Based on the same Sky material, the prosecution has labeled me as a member of another criminal group during the same period. My conclusion is that this is a reserve indictment - to keep me in custody when they file the first indictment," Božović said on January 12 of this year.
The High Court refused Božović the bail offered of 1,4 million euros.
Mileto Ojdanić, who was arrested today in front of Spuž, is also on trial for organizing cocaine smuggling in that case.
The indictment in the "police cartel" case also includes former police officer Vladimir Bajčeta and an employee of that institution, Milan Popović, who were also waited for today in front of the Spuža gate, because their three-year detention period from the date of indictment was expiring.
After leaving SAJ, Bajčeta was Duško Šarić's bodyguard.
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