a minute agoA fifth of cigarettes confiscated in EU, originating in Montenegro
Periskopi(2 years ago)
(2 years ago)More than 20 percent of the illegal cigarettes confiscated last year at the European Union's borders originated in Montenegro, the European Office Against Deception (OLAF) announced. Out of 333 million confiscated cigarettes, for more than 60 million, Montenegro was marked as the <x1nd> country of origin”. [...]
More than 20 percent of the illegal cigarettes confiscated last year at the European Union's borders originated in Montenegro, the European Office Against Deception (OLAF) announced.
Out of 333 million confiscated cigarettes, for more than 60 million, Montenegro was marked as “country of origin”.
That means four times the previous year, when 15 million were confiscated, according to OLAF annual reports.
But according to OLAF, Montenegro was third in over the seizure of illegal cigarettes in 2023 after Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
Why does Montenegro, which is a NATO member and a serious candidate for EU membership, fail to prevent cigarette smuggling?
Ines Mrrdovic, from the Social Justice Action in this country, says political will is lacking.
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The cigarette smuggling in Montenegro is present for more than three decades.
“Tradita”
It started with the deployment of international sanctions on Yugoslavia in the early years of dealt with 90 years, when Milo Djukanovic's Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) was in power.
Then, as well as Djukanovic himself, authorities said it was a transit job, but, according to critics, it was state smuggling towards Italy and other European countries. They claimed that smuggling was done across the Adriatic Sea by swift ships.
In 1999, investigation into cigarette smuggling from Montenegro to Italy also carried out the Justice of Bari ʹto city in southern Italy, which relates to the shortest sea route to the Port of Tivar.
The investigations included 15 Italian and Montenegrin citizens, including Djukanovic, who was then prime minister.
Ten years later, the Italian Prosecutor for the fight against organised crime dropped the charges against Djukanovic due to diplomatic immunity.
Other Montenegrin citizens were acquitted of the charges.
In 2020, DPS lost power after three decades.
None of the government until then was convicted of organisation or links to cigarette smuggling, even though the new government warned that it would expose all links between the mafia and that party.
Free Zone Problem
Even the European Union has repeatedly expressed concern about smuggling cigarettes through Montenegro, naming the Tivar Port as <x0-platform for smuggling counterfeit products, along with those legally produced, in the EU”.
The so - called Free Zone port of Tivar is located, which is an area excluded from a country's customs territory, where a number of economic activities, such as production, storage, or transportation services, are performed.
The Free Zone in the Port of Tivar for years has been described as the site of cigarette smuggling, whose size has been most explicitly noted by British officials.
Only through the Tivar Port each year are over two billion cigarettes smuggled into European markets, then British Ambassador to Montenegro Karen Maddox declared in March 2022.
According to her, estimates have shown that cigarette smuggling costs Western Balkan economies more than 300m euros lost annually.
In 2022, cigarettes were banned in the Free Zone.
After a major cigarette seizure in the Free Zone in May that year, then Montenegro's Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said cigarette smuggling in this country is clinically dead.
Citing OLAF's findings for 2023, Mrrdovic says that “cigarette smuggling has not only died clinically, but there is no period in which it was clinically dead”.
“Pages are inevitable”, according to it.
Double Revenues From Aczia
At the British Embassy in Montenegro, they also express concern for OLAF's recent findings.
A statement given Radio Free Europe reportedly concerns the “embassy over the possible resurface of tobacco smuggling in Montenegro”.
This underlines the urgent need for all actors, including Montenegro's Government, law enforcement authorities and international partners, to address all weaknesses used by organised criminal groups”, the statement said.
At the embassy, they believe that only a systematic approach can tame “these repeated security incidents” in the Tivar Port.
Therefore, we urge the Government to prioritize the new Law on Free Zones in the coming months, as well as to consider initiatives to increase the presence of customsmen and policemen in the Port of Tivar”, the statement said.
But according to it, the British government co-operates with Montenegro to combat cigarette smuggling, including providing equipment and training to officials at ports, airports and borders.
What do they say on the European Commission?
In the latest report, the European Commission cited the ban on storing tobacco products in the Free Port of Tivara Zone.
According to the report, “this has led to the seizure of an unprecedented number of cigarettes, which their owners have placed in warehouses”.
However, it is said that large quantities of cigarettes have disappeared from the warehouses before entering into effect.
In Brussels they have estimated that there are still about 1,500 tonnes of cigarettes waiting to be destroyed.
An extermination in 2022 ended with the arrest of then director of the Montenegro Directorate of Entering and Customs Rade Milosevic.
At the time, in the presence of cameras near the Javorak factory in Niksic, a portion of cigarettes has been eliminated, while a truck loaded with packages worth one million euros, which also had to be destroyed, “has emerged from the” road.
A special police team has found him a day later in the middle of Podgorica and Niksic.
Meanwhile, some people have been arrested, including Milosevic.
So far there is no epilogue in this case.
In the 2023 report, The EU has criticised Montenegro for its lack of final decisions in cigarette smuggling cases.
Actus Against Two Former Police Directors
The Supreme Court in Podgorica did not answer Radio Europe's free questions about the number of decisions on cigarette smuggling.
Even the Special State Prosecutor did not reveal how many charges have been filed.
But available data on the Prosecutor's website shows that at least three counts of cigarette smuggling have been filed this year.
In two of those cases, former Montenegrin police directors are involved.
In January of this year, an indictment against 15 people has been filed, including Wesselin Velovich, former police director and later Djukanovic's adviser during his presidential mandate.
He has been identified as a member of an organised criminal group, established in 2018, with the aim of smuggling cigarettes from the Tirana Port Free Zone and money laundering.
Velovic, who was arrested in July 2023, is accused of abuse of his position by communicating police information to smugglers through encrypted communication.
He has denied guilt and was released to protect himself from domestic arrest.
The indictment has been raised against the other former police director, Slavko Stojanovic, as well as for misuse of official office.
Stojanovic was arrested in November last year.
He reportedly, after learning that his friend's cigarette truck was stopped in Podgorica without necessary documentation, has ordered police to release him.
In May 2021, Montenegro's Special State Prosecutor has announced that she has initiated several criminal procedures for cigarette smuggling and that the amount of tax evasion, excises and customs duties in those cases amounts to over 70m euros.
The result of these procedures is unknown.
The problem is in courts. According to her, it is hard to expect that there will be precipitous justice judgments, taking into account the state of the judiciary, which she deems as rotten “”.
It's not real to expect judgment in a predictable future. Even if we do, I'm afraid they won't be strict enough to prevent smuggling in the future”, Mrrdovic says.
What's the solution?
Mrrdovic says the solution lies in the property process, not only in the judiciary, but in customs and police services as well.
Veting is a process, which includes controlling the wealth of judges, prosecutors and their family, their possible connection to crime, and their professional qualifications.
“Pa vetoing, simply, we will not have results required by the European Union”, says Mrrdovic.
She adds there are judicial processes in the area of organised crime and corruption, which are postponed many times.
Everything in this country seems to be avoiding justice”, she says.
Asked how to solve the problem, Mrrdovic says that “political will is one of the main preconditions, because mechanisms exist”.
Currently, it is not known how many cigarettes are found in the Free Gate of Tivar.
Less than a week later, Montenegro's Government has not answered Radio Europe's free questions if its Co-ordination Body for the Inventoration of Confiscat goods in the Tirana Port Free Zone has made inventory of confiscated cigarettes and proposed any measures for their annihilation.
Montenegro's prime minister, Milljko Spajich, heads this body.
Government service has forwarded to Radio Europe Free Deputy Prime Minister Momo Koprivica, who has not returned answers.
At the first March session of this year, the Co-ordination Body has pledged that the process of inventory and extermination of goods in the Free Zone will be as transparent as possible.
At that session it has been said that the government of Montenegro has strong will to eliminate smuggling until the end. /rel
