One fifth of cigarettes confiscated in the EU originate from Montenegro

2024-09-01 12:20:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

More than 20 percent of illegal cigarettes confiscated last year at the borders of the European Union originated from Montenegro, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) announced.

Of the 333 million confiscated cigarettes, for more than 60 million, Montenegro was marked as the "country of origin".

This means four times more than the previous year, when 15 million were confiscated, according to OLAF's annual reports.

And according to OLAF, Montenegro was in third place in terms of confiscation of illegal cigarettes in 2023 - after Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

Why does Montenegro, which is a member of NATO and a serious candidate for EU membership, fail to prevent cigarette smuggling?

Ines Mërdovi?, from the Action for Social Justice in this country, says that there is a lack of political will.

"I'm afraid that the tobacco mafia has shown considerable strength in relation to the state of Montenegro," she says to Radio Free Europe.

Cigarette smuggling in Montenegro has been present for more than three decades.

The "tradition" of cigarette smuggling since the 90s

It started with the imposition of international sanctions on Yugoslavia in the early 90s, when the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) of Milo Djukanovi? was in power.

The authorities at the time, as well as Djukanovic himself, said that it was a transit work, but, according to critics, it was state smuggling to Italy and other European countries. They claimed that smuggling was done through the Adriatic Sea in fast ships.

In 1999, investigations into the smuggling of cigarettes from Montenegro to Italy were also conducted by the justice of Bari - a city in the south of Italy, which is connected by the shortest sea route to the Port of Tivari.

The investigations involved 15 Italian and Montenegrin citizens - among them Djukanovic, who was prime minister at the time.

Ten years later, the Italian Prosecutor's Office for the fight against organized crime withdrew the charges against Djukanovic, due to diplomatic immunity.

Other Montenegrin citizens were also acquitted of the charges. In 2020, DPS lost power after three decades.

No one from the previous Government was convicted for organizing or being linked to cigarette smuggling, even though the new Government warned that it would expose all links between the mafia and that party.

The Free Zone Problem

Even the European Union has repeatedly expressed concern about the smuggling of cigarettes through Montenegro, describing the Port of Tivari as "a platform for smuggling counterfeit products, together with those produced legally, into the EU".

In the Port of Tivari there is a so-called Free Zone, which is an area excluded from the customs territory of a country, where a number of economic activities are carried out, such as production, storage or transport services.

The Free Zone in the Port of Tivari, for years, has been described as a place of cigarette smuggling, the extent of which has been pointed out more explicitly by British officials. Only through the Port of Tivari, every year, more than two billion cigarettes are smuggled, reaching the European markets, declared in March 2022 the then British ambassador to Montenegro, Karen Maddox.

According to her, estimates have shown that cigarette smuggling costs the economies of the Western Balkans more than 300 million euros in lost income per year.

In 2022, the storage of cigarettes was banned in the Free Zone.

After a major seizure of cigarettes in the Free Zone in May of that year, the then Prime Minister of Montenegro, Dritan Abazovi?, said that cigarette smuggling in this country is clinically dead.

Citing OLAF's findings for 2023, Merdovic says that "cigarette smuggling is not only not clinically dead, but there is no period in which it was clinically dead." "The facts are unavoidable", according to her.

Double revenue from excise duty

The British Embassy in Montenegro also expresses concern about the latest findings of OLAF.

In a statement given to Radio Free Europe, it is said that the embassy "is concerned about the possible re-emergence of tobacco smuggling in Montenegro".

"This underscores the urgent need for all actors, including the Government of Montenegro, law enforcement authorities and international partners, to address all the vulnerabilities that organized criminal groups exploit," the statement said.

The embassy believes that only a systematic approach can mitigate "these repeated security incidents" in the Port of Tivari.

"Therefore, we call on the Government to prioritize the adoption of the new Law on Free Zones in the coming months, as well as to consider initiatives to increase the presence of customs officers and policemen in the Port of Tivar", it is stated in statement.

According to her, the British Government cooperates with Montenegro to combat cigarette smuggling, including the provision of equipment and training for officials at ports, airports and borders.

What do they say in the European Commission?

In the last report, the European Commission mentioned the prohibition of the storage of tobacco products in the Free Zone of the Port of Tivar.

According to the report, "this has led to the confiscation of an unprecedented number of cigarettes, which their owners have left in warehouses".

However, large quantities of cigarettes are said to have disappeared from warehouses before the ban came into effect.

In Brussels, they have estimated that there are still around 1,500 tons of cigarettes in the Port of Tivari, waiting to be disposed of.

Annihilation in 2022 ended with the arrest of the then director of the Directorate of Revenue and Customs in Montenegro, Rade Milosevic. At that time, in the presence of cameras near the Javorak factory in Nikši?, a part of cigarettes was destroyed, while a truck loaded with packages worth one million euros, which also had to be destroyed, "went off the road".

A special police team found him a day later between Podgorica and Nikši?. Meanwhile, several people have been arrested, including Milosevic. To this day there is no epilogue for this case.

In the report for 2023, the EU has criticized Montenegro for the lack of final decisions in cigarette smuggling cases.

Indictment against two former police directors

The Supreme Court in Podgorica did not respond to Radio Free Europe's questions about the number of decisions on cigarette smuggling. Even the Special State Prosecutor's Office did not indicate how many indictments have been filed.

However, the data available on the website of the Prosecutor's Office show that at least three indictments related to cigarette smuggling have been filed this year.

In two of these cases, former directors of the Montenegrin police are involved. In January of this year, an indictment was filed against 15 people, including Veselli Velovi?, former police director and later Djukanovi?'s advisor during his presidential term.

He has been identified as a member of an organized criminal group, created in 2018, with the purpose of smuggling cigarettes from the Free Zone of the Port of Tivari and laundering money.

Velovic, who was arrested in July 2023, is accused of abusing his position, communicating police information to smugglers through coded communication.

He has pleaded not guilty and has been released to protect himself from house arrest.

An indictment has also been filed against the other former director of the police, Slavko Stojanovi? - also for abuse of office. Stojanovi? was arrested in November last year.

It is stated in the indictment that he, after learning that his friend's truck with cigarettes was stopped in Podgorica without the necessary documentation, ordered the police to release him.

In May 2021, the Special Prosecutor's Office of the State of Montenegro has announced that it has initiated several criminal proceedings for cigarette smuggling and that the amount of evasion of taxes, excise duties and customs duties in those cases amounts to over 70 million euros.

The result of these procedures is not known. For Merdovic, the problem is with the courts. According to her, it is difficult to expect final judgments, considering the state of the judiciary, which she considers "rotten".

"It is not realistic to expect judgments in the foreseeable future. Even if we have them, I'm afraid they won't be strict enough to prevent smuggling in the future", says Mërdovi?.

Where is the solution?

Merdovic says that the solution lies in the vetting process, not only in the judiciary, but also in the customs and police services. Veting is a process that includes checking the wealth of judges, prosecutors and their family members, their possible connection to crime, as well as the assessment of their professional qualifications.

"Without vetting, simply, we will not have the results required by the European Union", says Merdovic.

She adds that there are judicial processes in the field of organized crime and corruption, which are postponed many times. "Everything in this country seems to avoid justice", she says.

Asked how to solve the problem, Merdovic says that "political will is one of the main prerequisites, because the mechanisms exist".

Currently, it is not known how many cigarettes are found in the Free Zone of the Port of Tivari.

Not even after a week, the Government of Montenegro has not responded to Radio Free Europe's questions about whether its Coordinating Body for the Inventory of Confiscated Goods in the Free Zone of the Port of Tivari, has made an inventory of the confiscated cigarettes and proposed any measure for their disposal.

This body is chaired by the Prime Minister of Montenegro, Millojko Spajic. The Government Service forwarded Radio Free Europe's questions to Deputy Prime Minister Momo Koprivica, who did not respond.

In the first session of March of this year, the Coordinating Body pledged that the procedure of inventorying and disposal of goods in the Free Zone will be as transparent as possible.

In that session, it was said that the Government of Montenegro has a strong will to eliminate smuggling to the end./ Rel