The largest international-regional operation "Balkan Warrior" launched in the fall of 2009 - did not even touch the Montenegrin mafia. On the contrary, according to available police documents, in the following decade, criminal clans grew numerically, acquired enormous financial power and valuable property in attractive locations, expanded their network of collaborators and businesses, recruited soldiers...
Therefore, data from the latest police document - SOCTA 2021, shows that they have even established a dominant role in some international smuggling routes...
Although the security services, judging by the earlier strategic documents Assessment of the threat of organized and serious crime - SOCTA 2013, SOCTA 2014 and SOCTA 2017, recognized the rise of organized criminal groups, claiming that their dominant business is cocaine smuggling and the delivery of cargo from Latin America to European countries , there were almost no major seizures in Montenegro until last summer...
During the meteoric rise of the clans, which marked the four-year war and numerous mafia liquidations in the country and abroad, seizures of cocaine in Montenegro were almost negligible, so in some years the amount of expensive powder in court depots was measured only in grams.
That the Port of Bar is certainly an important hub through which drug shipments from Latin America are smuggled was clear as early as June 2013, when a customs official discovered during the inspection of a container of bananas that it was "loaded" with 250 kilograms of cocaine, which was supposed to by land to finish in Albania...
We waited almost a decade for a new record seizure - on August 26, 2021, 1,4 tons of cocaine were discovered in the warehouse of the company "San Francisco" in the Zeta village of Mojanovići, which is the largest amount of that drug ever seized in Montenegro.
Due to accusations that they allegedly ordered cocaine, court proceedings against the defendants are being conducted in the Podgorica High Court. Budimir i Marina Krstović, who denied involvement in cocaine smuggling, claiming that they only ordered bananas.
A new seizure followed already on January 11, 2022, when about 500 kilograms of cocaine arrived in Montenegro - in the warehouse of the trading company "Voli", the company's employees reported that drugs had also arrived in packages of bananas delivered from the Port of Bar, which they informed the police about. who knew this and tracked the suspicious shipment...
Operation, police, judiciary
During the "Balkan warrior" in the first months, the Montenegrin police and the prosecutor's office acted as if they were not very interested in the information of international services, and it was never revealed who ordered the killing of the seaman. Dragan Dudić called Money in May 2010 in the heart of the Old Town, who, he alleged, had business ties with Šarić.
Official investigation against Saric in Montenegro, it was launched only a year after "Balkan warrior", when he was against it Duško Sarić and his friend Jovice Lončara, the Italian prosecutor's office submitted evidence that they allegedly laundered money earned from drug sales.
Several years later, the court proceedings ended with a final acquittal.
It is the only process conducted in Montenegro after the operation, while numerous final verdicts were passed in Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy...
In response to the "News", the police administration provided statistical data for the period from 2011 until now, based on which data it is clear that cocaine was seized annually in grams or only about a hundred kilograms, and that record amounts were discovered in an interval of half a year. - last summer and in January this year.
In the past decade, from 2011 to 2021, the police seized 22 tons and 318 kilograms of marijuana, 117,64 kilograms of heroin and one ton and 507 kilograms of cocaine.
During 2022, 500 kilograms of cocaine were also seized.
"When we talk about years individually, in 2011, 804,26 kilograms of marijuana, 3,7 kilograms of heroin, 338,9 grams of cocaine were seized, then in 2012 - a ton of 22,4 kilograms of marijuana, 8 kilograms of heroin and 408,5 .2013 grams of cocaine, in 338,3 a ton and 7,18 kilograms of marijuana, 80,9 kilograms of heroin and 2014 grams of cocaine were seized. In 776,21, the police seized 2,43 kilograms of marijuana, 227,89 kilograms of heroin, and 2015 kilograms of cocaine, in 197,46 - 4,63 kilograms of marijuana, 33,92 kilograms of heroin, and 2016 kilograms of cocaine. During 783,53, two tons and 33,39 kilograms of marijuana, 337,4 kilograms of heroin and 2017 grams of cocaine were seized, during 336 three tons and 17,93 kilograms of marijuana, 1,64 kilograms of heroin and 2018 kilograms of cocaine. In 203, three tons and 1,78 kilograms of the narcotic drug marijuana were seized, while 34,89 kilograms of heroin were seized, and XNUMX kilograms of cocaine," said UP.
According to UP data, in 2019, two tons and 290 kilograms of marijuana, 23,32 grams of heroin and 93 grams of cocaine were seized, and in 2020 - three tons and 103 kilograms of marijuana, 13,16 kilograms of heroin and a kilogram of cocaine.
Colorful balls, bananas...
Italian inspector Luigi Rinella back in 2007, he noticed that something mysterious and new was happening in Milan. He noticed that one detail was repeated in most of the arrests and seizures - the cocaine was wrapped in colorful balloons - ordinary, children's, colorful balls...
He could have guessed that the rubber packaging was to protect the drugs from water if they fell off the ship during transport, but not who was behind it...
Two years later, in the waters of the Atlantic Ocean near Montevideo, it was discovered who the key sailors were - Montenegrin and Serbian citizens were arrested in an attempt to transfer over two tons of cocaine by yacht to an ocean liner, which was sailing towards Western Europe...
Because of that drug, Pljevlja became the center of the investigation because he found refuge in his hometown in the first months Darko Saric, who was identified by the US DEA and regional police as the head of a strong organized crime group from the Balkans, through whose collaborative network loads of expensive powder are brought from Latin America to Europe.
As the structure of the Montenegrin clans changed, and their numbers and power increased, the mafia also changed the method of transporting cocaine to European ports.
Colorful balloons, after the "Balkan Warrior", went down in history, and then bananas were used in container maritime traffic to hide cocaine.
UP has no knowledge of Katnić
That Montenegrin security services in containers of bananas, which are delivered from Latin America, are allegedly promoting huge amounts of cocaine in the Port of Bar, the former chief special prosecutor for many years has publicly announced Milivoje Katnic after the seizure of 500 kilograms of cocaine in January of this year.
He assessed that another cocaine smuggling chain had been broken, claimed that the members of the criminal organization should have taken the cocaine in the Free Customs Zone of the Port of Bar, and then expressed his suspicion "that this happened as many as three times in 2021".
"These are cases from June 2, August 2, and October 14, when members of a criminal group managed to take two to three tons of cocaine from the Free Customs Zone, the value of which is several hundreds of millions of euros. This drug is 96 percent pure, it's perfection," said Katnić.
The police administration replied to "Vijesta" that they did not have Katnić's knowledge about the "alleged arrival or disappearance of a large amount of cocaine from the Free Zone of Luka Bar, and were not informed about the events that, as stated, took place on June 2, August 2 and 14 October 2021 in the Port of Bar".
"The police administration acts in relation to all the information and operational data it possesses and informs the competent prosecutor's office of everything, and undertakes measures and actions within its competence", they state in the answer.
The Voli company, after drugs were found in their warehouse, announced that they faced an unexpected and shocking incident in connection with a suspicious shipment that reached their distribution center.
"Experience shows that when it comes to bananas, there is always a high risk of finding abandoned goods of suspicious substance with shipments. Aware of the great possibility of misuse of shipments, we are very cautious", states the management of "Volija", confirming that since 2018 it has been continuously addressing the authorities, with the request to re-check and additionally scan the goods at the company's expense".
The loads are stored in the court's depot
The record loads of cocaine after expert examination at the Forensic Center, as evidence, are kept in the depot of the High Court in Podgorica, where they will be until a decision is made on their destruction.
"The area where confiscated drugs are stored is controlled and entry to those premises is strictly prohibited to all unauthorized persons. Confiscated drugs are destroyed after the conditions are met, that is, after the judgments become final and after obtaining permits from the Ministry of Health - Department for Drugs and the Environmental Protection Agency. The decision on the destruction of confiscated drugs is made by the competent higher court by decision, after which the Commission for the destruction of drugs is formed, which consists of representatives of that court and the Police Administration. The drug, seized by an unknown perpetrator, where there was no basis for filing a criminal report, the Forensic Center, after the expert examination, returns it to the security center of the Police Administration, which made the seizure, where it is kept in the center's deposits, also until the decision on destruction is made," they explained. are in UP.
On July 27, 2006, Željezara Nikšić, 1.189,91 kilograms of marijuana, 15,39 kilograms of heroin, 1,5 kilograms of cocaine, 47,35 grams of hashish, 777 pieces of synthetic drugs, 4,31 grams of speed, were destroyed by burning. 0,54 grams of opium, 109 seeds and three stalks of cannabis from which marijuana is grown and 14,58 kilograms of a mixture intended for mixing with drugs.
In May 2014, in the furnaces of the Podgorica Aluminum Plant, 2.916 kilograms were burned, most of which was marijuana and about 13 kilograms of heroin.
At the request of the High Court, on June 15, 2018, about five tons of narcotics were destroyed.
"When we talk about cases with the code names "187" and "Plima", within which large cocaine seizures were realized, further measures and actions are taken to identify persons or groups of persons involved in smuggling", says UP.
Who is trembling after Sarić's arrest?
On April 14, 2022, the Serbian police in Belgrade, while he was under house arrest, arrested Pljevljak Duško Šarić and several of his closest associates, and the new operation followed after EUROPOL and EUROJUST provided the regional police with evidence - messages that they "took down ” following the communication on the SKY application for years.
Saric's group is suspected of murdering Milan Milovac, known as Cigla, in January of last year in Ecuador, who was his godfather and most trusted person.
Who is shaking after the arrest of Šarić in Montenegro is still unknown, but "Vijesti" data from the top of the security services indicate that new arrests of persons connected to him in police, judicial and criminal circles will soon follow...
Šarić disappeared from Pljevlja in the wake of the "Balkan Warrior", just one day before the international Interpol warrant, successfully hiding for years, but in March 2014, he arrived at Podgorica's Golubovci airport on a private plane, accompanied by the police, where he met his family for half an hour . After that, he was flown to Belgrade, where he was tried for years for smuggling 5,7 tons of cocaine, but there is still no final verdict.
Last year, after seven years of detention, the Appellate Court there ordered a milder measure - house arrest with leg arrest.
Bonus video:
