In these months, the Government has shown the will, strength and readiness to deal with all the negativity that in the past period damaged the image and caused damage to the budget of Montenegro, said the Minister of the Interior Filip Adžć at the press conference.
He said that in the continuation of the "Transit" campaign, the smuggling of 1.568 packs of cigarettes worth around 1,2 million euros was prevented.
"We confiscated a huge amount of cigars and thus showed that the tobacco mafia no longer has free movement and does not control the institutions. In this context today we present certain data. What I want to emphasize is that Montenegro finally has strong institutions that are trusted by international partners and the Ministry of Interior has exceptional cooperation with the Administration of Revenue and Customs and with the help of the Police Administration carried out several activities and made a historic result. In a month of work, we have done more to the Government than in the past 30 years," said Adžić.
In the 40 days since this Government has been in office, we have confiscated close to 150.000 packs of cigarettes, which is an amount that has never been confiscated, said the director of the Revenue and Customs Administration, Rada Milošević.
"In the action "Transit", we seized eight containers with cigarettes, and as part of the second seizure, we prevented the additional smuggling of 1.568 packs of cigarettes. This is the case of the "double container", where the company that owns the cigarettes tried to deceive the state and reported that one amount of cigarettes was in in question, and when we carried out controls, it turned out that they were duplicate packages. It was determined that three containers had double value. The value of the seized goods, if all duties were paid, would be around 1.5 million euros," said Milošević.
He pointed out that the UPC has the right and legal norms that are imperative, and that they have the absolute right to confiscate those containers, that is, the goods, and that this was done because the legal norms were not respected.
"Article 63 of the customs law clearly defines that when certain deadlines expire, the customs office has the right to immediately react, confiscate and sell the goods," explained Milošević.
He also cited Article 83, which states that customs can confiscate and sell goods if they are subject to prohibition or restrictions.
"The story that it is private property is unfounded. We have interpretations from the Supreme Court in Podgorica, which says that it is a prohibited commodity".
Tobacco products of this type are prohibited, Milošević reminded.
"this attempt to discredit the UPC. We understand the nervousness. We managed to take away the huge value from the people who were engaged in this business and the plan is to consider the legal basis for selling these goods. We have launched a cation lock, which is being done for the first time in the Port At least, in the Free Zone, which implies the locking of all containers. No manipulation of any container can happen without the control of the UPC in cooperation with the UP. Every opening is monitored by a camera so that we can avoid any complaints tomorrow," said Milošević.
Milošević pointed out that during the mandate of Milena Petričević, these goods had to be confiscated. He showed the documentation of the Bar Customs Office according to which 22 containers were declared and which states that the maximum period for transit is 45 days, and that it is imperative that they must be confiscated after that period.
"The last container was reported on February 18. Now you add up 45 days. Those deadlines expired during her mandate, 60 days have passed since these containers were stored. When I took office, these 22 containers were not reported to me."
He stated that the assumption is that there are still cigarettes in the port that have not been registered anywhere.
"When all the containers are checked, and there are still five left, the Prosecutor's Office will be notified and we will give grounds for suspicion that there is a criminal offense of smuggling," said Milošević.
He pointed out that the transit of cigarettes is still allowed today if it is in accordance with the legal procedure, but that it is monitored by the police and customs.
As for security within the Free Zone, Milošević said that it is the responsibility of Port Bar.
"One of the opportunities will be to cover the Free Zone with video surveillance so that we can monitor criminal activities. We currently do not have surveillance, but it is included in the public procurement plan."
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