The Basic State Prosecutor's Office is still investigating criminal charges against the company "Weg kolektor" from Berane, the owner of the red mud pool at the Aluminum Plant. The Environmental Inspection and the Environmental Protection Agency have filed five criminal charges against the Berane-based company since 2022 for not taking the necessary actions to prevent the spread of hazardous particles from its property - the red mud pool.
According to reports received by “Vijesti”, the Environmental Inspection has been informing the Basic Prosecutor's Office since July 2017 that the company “Weg kolektor” is endangering human health and the environment through its inaction and carelessness. The last such report was submitted to the Prosecutor's Office in July of this year, regarding an environmental incident that occurred on June 9th and when dangerous dust spread for seven days because the pools were dry. However, eight years since the Prosecutor's Office has been informing the competent inspectorates about dangerous incidents, the incident has not borne fruit.
Case filed, investigation underway
"Regarding your inquiry regarding the criminal charges filed by the Environmental Inspection and the Environmental Protection Agency against the company "Weg kolektor" DOO Berane and the responsible person in that legal entity, I would like to inform you that a case has been opened at the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica and that the investigation procedure is underway. As part of the investigation, several requests have been sent to collect the necessary information, as well as urgent requests to the competent authorities to provide the requested data," Vijesti was told in a response from the Basic State Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, which is almost the same as in June last year.
"Weg kolektor" is a car scrapyard that has two employees and has no experience in processing and storing hazardous materials, and according to inspection reports, it has not taken care of the pool's dusting system, which is supposed to prevent the wind from blowing away dangerous dust, since the pool was purchased ten years ago.
Red mud pools are full of micro dust containing substances hazardous to human health and nature. The Inspectorate filed four criminal charges against the company and its responsible persons because four measurements at the Mali Brijeg - Srpska measuring point determined that PM10 particles exceeded the permitted limits. The Environmental Protection Agency filed a criminal charge in February 2023 against the company “Weg Kolektor” for failing to act on the order to implement specific environmental protection measures at its own expense against imminent danger.
Danger since 1972.
The red mud pools were created as open storage areas for waste from the processing of bauxite ore into alumina at the former Aluminum Plant and have been an environmental problem for decades. The alumina factory began operating in 1972, when the pools were filled, and ceased operations in 2009. Since then, the only protective measures have been to raise the pool wall and install sprinklers to dampen the red dust and prevent it from being blown by the wind into the surrounding villages.
The owner of the pool - the Aluminum Plant - was responsible for ensuring the sprinklers were in good working order until July 2013, when it went bankrupt, and then the bankruptcy administration until February 2014, when a Ukrainian businessman bought them from the bankruptcy estate for 450 thousand euros. Roman DenkovicHowever, he sells the pools the following year to the company "WEG Kolektor" for an unknown amount of money, and this Berane-based company pledges them for a loan of five million euros from the company "Blackrock Capital" from Podgorica.
Problems with pollution from red mud existed even when they were managed by the state-owned KAP, as the wind occasionally blew dangerous dust. More than two decades ago, the state purchased some of the nearest properties because the land was polluted and impossible to live on and farm. Some of the locals whose properties were not purchased have been engaged in decades-long disputes.
Fines and reports did not solve the problem
Even after “Weg kolektor” became the owner of these pools, which cover 450 thousand square meters of land, in 2015, the problems continued with the sprinklers on the pools not working and the wind blowing dangerous red dust to the surrounding villages. According to “Vijesti”, inspections have been detecting such cases since 2017, and since then they have imposed several fines on the Berane-based company, and since 2022 they have also started filing criminal charges, which have so far yielded no results.
The latest letter from the Environmental Inspection to the Basic Prosecutor's Office, dated July 7th of this year, states identical situations that have been going on for at least eight years - that strong winds have been blowing dangerous dust around the area for days because the pools that their owners should be taking care of are dry. That is, the well and the pollination system are not functioning.
The June pollution lasted seven days
The Inspectorate then states that it is submitting the necessary documentation - evidence related to the accident that occurred on June 9, 2025, to the Basic Prosecutor's Office in Podgorica, when "under the blows of the wind from the dry surfaces of the pool, red dust was sprinkled on the property of locals who were positioned near the pool, for further action."
The Inspectorate then informs the prosecutor's office that "Weg Kolektor", the founder Lazar Jevrić i Toonia Shahrama, the owner of a swimming pool and what legal obligations he has to prevent the spread of hazardous particles from his property.
"Following a call from locals, the environmental inspection informed the prosecutor on duty about the accident at the pools, with whom it agreed to engage the authorized laboratory CETI Podgorica, which began urgent air quality measurements of suspended particles in the vicinity of the red mud pool, at one measuring point for seven days. Identical accidents occurred in the previous period at the same subject of supervision because 50 percent of the total area of the old red mud pool is dry without a water surface, while the new pool is completely dry without water," the inspection stated in this letter to the prosecutor's office.
Inspection: Failure of the company "Weg kolektor" to act endangers people's health
They also state that the pool owner told them that he did not have the financial means to provide sufficient amounts of water at the pools and that he was looking for a partner who would, among other things, resolve the situation at the pools.
"The provision of water for wetting the pool surfaces now depends solely on the amount of precipitation and this situation has been going on for a long time. All previous actions of the environmental inspection towards the subject of supervision have not had any effect in terms of solving the problem. The inspector notes that there is still an immediate danger to human health and property due to dust emissions from the red mud pool by the 'Weg collector' in Berane because it is a dry period," the Inspectorate's letter to the prosecutor's office stated.
Completely identical assessments are stated in ten accident inspection reports from 2017, in which CETI determined the spread of hazardous dust from the pool that lasted for several days, with significant excesses of hazardous particles in the air. All of these reports state that the pool spraying equipment, which is the responsibility of "Weg kolektor", was not working and that their inaction is the cause of these environmental incidents that are dangerous to human health and nature.
"Vijesti" has sent questions to this Berane-based company several times in recent years regarding the resolution of this problem, but has not received a response.
When asked by "Vijesti" last year who is obligated to remediate this potential ecological bomb - the state or the private owner, the Environmental Protection Agency responded that the owner should do it.
"The current owner of the red mud pool is WEG Kolektor Berane, so the responsibility for implementing all activities, projects and plans related to the red mud pool lies with this company," the Agency stated at the time.
Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Northern Development Damjan Ćulafić said last month that his proposal was to form an interdepartmental commission to solve the problem of managing the red mud basin.
The controversial loan, how 450 thousand became five million euros
"Vijesti" has written several times in recent years that the value of the swimming pool increased from 450 thousand to five million euros in a year, which is how much the Berane company received by pledging it as property for a loan. The multiple increase in the value of real estate in related transactions is considered risky from a money laundering perspective.
Ukrainian businessman Roman Denković bought the pools in 2015 from the bankruptcy administration of KAP for 450 thousand euros, with the intention, as he announced at the time, to extract rare metals from the red mud, the quantity of which was estimated at 7,5 million tons, by processing, which according to earlier analyses amounted to about 7.500 tons.
However, he sells the pools the following year to a small company "Weg kolektor", registered for the recycling of sorted waste, for an unknown amount of money. This company from Beran then pledges the pools for a loan of five million euros from the company "Blackrock Capital" from Podgorica. According to the balance sheets of the company "Weg kolektor", its total assets, including the land, are estimated at 35 thousand euros.
According to data from the Central Registry, the company "Blackrock Capital", which approved a loan for a period of 14 years to the people of Berane, was registered on March 28, 2019, although the cadastre states that the loan was approved in February 2016. In 2016, the owner of "Weg Kolektor" was 20-year-old Lazar Jevrić, while his father Siniša Jevrić was wanted by Interpol for alleged connections to drug trafficking.
According to the registry data, the company "Blackrock Capital", which gave a loan of five million euros to "WEG Kolektor", has no income or assets. The owner of the company in 2019 was Stefan Jovanović. At that time, he was also the owner of the company "Investment Vehicle", which has a 49 percent stake in the company "Savana Acquisition Mountain Black Investment Capital", the remaining 51 percent stake in this company is held by "Savana Commercial Retail" of businessman Veselin Mijača.
The current owner of "Blackrock Capital" is Danijel Đokić.
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