An experienced seafarer from the south of Montenegro for more than two decades was an important link for boarding drug cartel couriers on the ships of large overseas companies. In several cases that are under the scrutiny of international investigators, that seaman allegedly did a favor to young Montenegrins and boarded them on ships departing from ports in South America and sailing to Europe, and more recently to Africa, but in most cases he charged those who decided to subordinate the sailor's job to a dangerous one - cocaine smuggling.
For that sailor, whose identity was revealed to Vijesti, one of the bases was Brazil, and for years he sailed only on lines whose journeys began or ended in that South American country.
"He embarked and disembarked in Brazil, where he strengthened his contacts with the Balkan mafia. The information we have obtained shows that initially, during inevitable socializing and expensive parties, they tipped him to do a favor for the Montenegrins who live hard, and later he charged for these services. He was paid up to 30.000 euros for boarding on those lines, and he remained clean, because the transportation of cocaine was not his responsibility", said the interlocutor of Vijesti from the foreign security service.
DON'T MISS IT
Vijesti's investigation reveals a brutal reality - those who did not want to get involved in the dirty drug business resisted the pressure to become clan couriers, while many others who plunged into the illegal business ended up underground or behind bars. Some who accepted the role of obedient soldiers managed to build business empires, now seen as synonymous with success in many cities of the former Yugoslavia, but with the inevitable smell of blood and fear.
During the conversation with a team of international investigators, Vijesti also discovered how much drug cartels pay for the transfer of cocaine, who dared to enter this deadly game, but also which sailors paid the highest price due to greed or disobedience, often with their lives.
The interlocutor from the foreign security service explains that the method of smuggling cocaine from Latin America around the globe is constantly changing, and that the routes of cocaine are also dictated by the development of technology.
"Due to the strengthened international security system related to terrorism, piracy, smuggling, robberies... South American cartels, with whom criminal groups around the world cooperate, are adapting to new trends, so now, in addition to transoceanic ships, they use sports sailboats to transport cocaine , drug planes that take off from illegal airstrips throughout South America, hand-made semi-submersible submarines, smaller ships, but also 'mules' - people who transfer or transport smaller shipments of cocaine by car, regular flights... It is important to emphasize that in all criminal activities that are investigating, criminals from the area of the former Yugoslavia, as well as the Albanian mafia, take it upon themselves to recruit crews and procure cocaine, which they distribute throughout Europe and Australia. Therefore, there is always someone of theirs in the bases from which cocaine is sent and that someone organizes a part of the work", said one of the interviewees of Vijesti.
Explaining how much these services cost, that is, how many "cakes" the failed sailors get, the agent of the foreign security service in charge of the fight against drugs explains that it depends on the criminal organization that smuggles cocaine...
"International smuggling didn't start with cocaine, it's just a continuation of the decades-long 'tradition' of smuggling alcohol, coffee, clothes... with the fact that these things are paid less... When the drugs started being sent to Europe and Australia, they were already there were 'experienced' sailors who just changed their activity and expanded their network. In earlier years, when they smuggled smaller amounts of up to 500 kilograms, the transport was 3.000 euros per kilogram - some were paid to bring in, and others to take drugs out of the ship. So a crew member receives cocaine on board and has the obligation to hide and keep it from South America to Europe. This implies that the cocaine passes through all other ports unhindered until it reaches the final port of unloading. The ships are complex and have huge surfaces, so it happened, for example, that we knew there were 1.200 kilograms of cocaine on board and that 120 of us, with 20 Malinois dogs, spent 30 hours on the ship until we found it... That's why they paid 3.000 euros each for storage, and if the same people are in charge of transport and bringing in or taking the amount out of the port, the figure is double, they get 6.000 euros per kilogram, most often when they take the drug off the ship, that is, when they pass the port gate with it ", explained one of the international agents...
Drugs are not sent unaccompanied
The interlocutor of Vijesti cited the example of a seafarer from Bar who was killed, who was sailing on a container ship, and who was carrying cocaine from the ship on his back, in a backpack...
"He was the second officer of the deck... Before, the international security system was not at the level it is today, that is, the security of the entry and amount of things and people (in-out port) and ship in-out was lower, so The "dealers" from the Balkans decided for more money, to take the cocaine out themselves where they knew that the entry and exit from the port was easy and vulnerable and that the sailors' backpacks, bags or luggage were not controlled... Baranin first took 3.000 euros each kilo to put drugs on the ship, and then his money got so poor that he became reckless. The destination of the drugs he was in charge of was most often the port of Las Palmas. He would put 20 kilos of cocaine in his backpack and head outside, show his ID at the gate of the port, sign him in and go out and hand it over. In those 15 minutes, he took 120.000 euros, but he did it several times during 24 hours, returning and presenting a new round... At that time, they did not check the crew at the gate of the port gate in Las Palmas. Neither him, nor the others who brought out the drugs that way. During the investigations, we discovered that, for example, a coordinated trio goes out and takes out 60 kilograms, and later in the day, while the ship is in port, they do it again. They did this with quantities of around 200 kilograms, depending on the number of people. Also, it was discovered that there were those who belted cocaine cubes around their dogs and thus went out, but also those who fainted from fear, and thus were discovered. "Baranin, who recently introduced the system of bringing in and taking out cocaine in a backpack, was set on fire in Spain, in a rental car," said the interlocutor to Vijesti...
He explained that other methods started when the security measures were strengthened, such as importing through containers or inserting drug loads on the open sea...
"After the security measures in the ports were strengthened, they started using containers. They usually filled the containers with some goods into which they would put cocaine, close it and it would enter the port because there were no container scanners, and not all the goods could be unloaded at the entrance of the port, because hundreds of trucks bring containers an hour. Another method was to infiltrate the already existing schemes and shipments of companies that transport legal goods, that is, the workforce that fills their containers, which they charged depending on the quantity, and then put cocaine into the already ready containers, after which they entered in the port and traveled to the destination. Given that these are container carriers that change lines, the shipment was almost never unaccompanied. Sailors were in charge of that part of the work, and they were paid depending on the quantity, and their duty was to wash away, remove, move, and secure the cocaine. "No one sends even 200 kilograms of cocaine from Brazil without supervision, without someone on board who knows where the drugs are and how much there is," said the newspaper's source.
It is forbidden to download the text without the consent of the Vijesti editorial office
Bonus video:
