During 2020 and early 2021, the company Playmaker - LLA 14, owned by Đorđije Pavićević, and customs officers in the Free Zone of the Port of Bar, Ivana Kovačević and Veljko Đuričić, falsified documentation for the export of over 24 million cartons of cigarettes to Libya. Official data obtained by MANS reveals that these cigarettes were never loaded onto ships, but instead came to Bar solely to load empty containers and continue on to nearby ports. The prosecution's investigation in this case covered only a small part of the total of 14 cases of fictitious cigarette exports uncovered by MANS.
When the Bergfjord left the Port of Bar in December 2020, it was carrying 45.100 packs of cigarettes destined for Libya. However, instead of reaching the African coast, it turned towards Albania and docked in the port of Shenjin, carrying only one empty container on board. The ship never entered Libyan territorial waters.
The day before the Bergfjord arrived, the Playmaker company informed the Port of Bar that only one empty container was to be loaded onto the ship.
On the day of arrival, the Panamanian company Amenua also informed customs authorities that the ship was docking solely to pick up an empty container, which would then be transported to Shenzhen.
However, on the same day, Amenua filed 11 additional declarations with customs for the shipment of cigarettes to Bergfjord. At the same time, Panamanian firm ABC Development Corp filed six more declarations, and Delaware-based Lenora International filed seven declarations with customs. All of the declarations stated that the cigarettes were being exported to Libya.
Customs officer Ivana Kovačević signed the record of the inspection of the goods, in which she stated that she witnessed the loading of one empty container and 45.100 packs of cigarettes onto the ship Bergfjord.
The same is stated in the cargo declaration certified by Pavićević's company Playmaker.
Data from the outgoing manifest, also signed by customs officer Ivana Kovačević, states that the ship sailed from the Port of Bar towards Libya.
The accompanying documentation also includes 14 requests to the Port of Bar to tranship cigarettes from the warehouse onto the Bergfjord, also verified by Kovačević. However, each of these requests was submitted only on December 3, 2020, a day after the ship had already left the Port.
Official data from the Port of Bar shows that no cigarettes were loaded onto the Bergfjord, but that the ship left Montenegro with only one empty container.
In addition, the documentation shows that the ship was at the Port of Bar for exactly an hour and a half – from 10:00 to 11:30. In order to load 45.100 packs of cigarettes in such a short period of time, as stated in the customs documentation, it would have been necessary to load six packs per second onto the ship, not taking into account the time required for customs and administrative procedures. Such a loading pace would have been physically impossible without the engagement of thousands of workers, who could not enter the Free Zone without special permits.
Finally, satellite data shows that the Bergfjord sailed into the Albanian port of Shenjin, not Libya, the day after leaving the Port of Bar. Moreover, the ship never entered Libyan territorial waters.
The exact same smuggling pattern was repeated in other cases – a total of 14 ships came to Bar solely to pick up one empty container each, after which they returned to the ports from which they had set sail. At the same time, falsified documentation showed the export of 490.290 packs of cigarettes, or 24,5 million crates, from the Free Zone of the Port of Bar to Libya.
In this way, the shortage in warehouses caused by cigarette smuggling was concealed, the Special Prosecutor's Office claims. In December 2023, Đorđije Pavićević and his associate Nikica Kovačević, as well as customs officers Ivana Kovačević and Veljko Đuričić, were arrested on suspicion of committing the crimes of creating a criminal organization, forging an official document, and aiding and abetting smuggling.
However, the decision ordering detention listed data on only four shipping routes during which around 110 packs of cigarettes were fictitiously exported, or almost five times less than the data disclosed by MANS.
All suspects are defending themselves from freedom, even though the profits from the sale of half a million packs of cigarettes on the black market were almost 300 million euros, while the state was damaged by almost half a billion euros in unpaid duties.
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