Is Montenegro Smugglers' Paradise?

Tobacco Smugglers - Target of Montenegrin and Italian Police

Will the Italian and the Montenegrin police in a joint campaign manage, as announced, to cut the chain of smuggling cigarettes and other goods between the two coasts of the Adriatic Sea

AIM Podgorica, 30 September, 1999

One of the major smuggling channels in Europe through which circulate cigarettes and other profitable goods between the sea coasts of Italy and Montenegro might soon be shut down. This is the plan made in the beginning of this week by Italian and Montenegrin police which immediately started to act accordingly.

On Tuesday evening Montenegrin police organised an unexpected operation in Bar and arrested one of the three smugglers' "bosses" with a few of their helpers! Their exact number and names were not made piblic, but it is assumed that the police among other got hold of certain Franco, chief of the Italian colony of smugglers in Bar which is claimed to consist of about 400 men stationed in Montenegro. On that same night, Italian financial police organised an ambush at the Adriatic. Five skimmers were caught.

This is the beginning of lifting of a veil from a great open secret that Montenegro is offering refuge to Italian mobsters with support of Montenegrin authorities, turning it into the main European base for smuggling cigarettes. The widespread illegal trade between the two coasts of the Adriatic, mostly between Bar and Bari, has for a long time been the topic which was occasionally publicly opened by the opposition parties and which almost every adult Montenegrin citizen had his/her own theory. Since recently, on the other side of the Adriatic, Italian media and officials have started presenting almost every day exact data and names as evidence that Montenegro is a "paradise for smugglers", that is, for Italian criminals who have connections with Montenegrin authorities. All that was publicly launched by vice president of the Socialist People's Party (its president is Momir Bulatovic, federal prime minister) Zoran Zizic in the beginning of September in form of an accusation - Italian mobsters who could not settle down on Sicily found refuge in Montenegro under auspices of the regime!

His party then made two demands: that the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Montenegro establish cooperation with Interpol and Italian government commision which is in charge of the struggle against the mob, and that Montenegrin parliament discuss the problem of smuggling between Montenegro and Italy.

As the story about tobacco and other illegal paths across the adriatic started quickly acquiring the dimensions of an international problem and became a challenging motive for political haggling between the Socialist People's Party and Montenegrin authorities, but also between Belgrade and Podgorica, it became clear that it will become impossible to continue to sweep the Montenegin-Italian smuggling connection under the carpet.

Among the topical stories on connections of Montenegrin authorities with the Italian mob special attention was drawn by the news of Italian daily Il matino carried by Montenegrin Monitor that Branko Perovic, minister of foreign affairs of Montenegro, was awaiting interrogation by an Italian court as one of the 46 persons indicted for involvement in international cigaretts trade. The daily stated that the organisers of such transfer of cigarettes charged six million German marks a month!

Indirectly, that is via Montenegrin privately owned newspapers and Belgrade regime media, Montenegrin authorities learnt a few days ago that president of Italian parliamentary commission, Ottavio del Turco accused Montenegro of offering hospitality to bosses of criminals wanted by the police and tens of their fast boats in which various goods were smuggled. "We have evidence of numerous cases of corruption of high officials of the government of Montenegro", declared del Turco to Roman Espresso in an article carried by Podgorica daily Dan. Through the same channels a statement of Italian foreign ministry reached Montenegro in which it was unambiguously warned that "resolute action of Montenegro in the struggle against crime" would be the condition for "continuation of cooperation with Podgorica and support to it offered by Rome".

In the beginning Montenegrin officials did not bother to even comment on the allegations and statements which were coming from Italy. But this could not last forever. First, representatives of Montenegrin police denied allegations of Italian press, and then in his speech at a debate in Zabljak Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic assessed that such stories encouraged accusations made by Slobodan Milosevic about crime in Montenegro. Having expressed regret that official Italy was silent about it and that such accusations "seriously threatened a very good tradition in Montenegrin and Italian relations", Djukanovic stressed that crime was a topic of all his talks with Italian officials. "All their answers can be brought down to the fact that there are a few men wanted by Italian authorities who were in Montenegro and I can say that we have extradited all those who were wanted by Italian police", Djukanovic declared.

However, soon after that an answer arrived from Italy that they would send Djukanovic video casettes and other material evidence that in broad daylight cigarettes and other goods were loaded and then smuggled to Italy in fast boats! It was obviously the last warning to Montenegrin authorities that official Italy intended to interrupt smuggling of tobacco and other goods across the Adriatic and that in this sense it expected Montenegro to take action and not just big talk. That everything has acquired serious proportions is testified by the departure (on 28 September) of minister of Montenegrin police Vukasin Maras to Rome to talks with his Italian colleagues.

On the eve of that journey Maras declared: "I responsibly claim that within a month there will be no more crime in South Adriatic!" Maras also announced that all identified criminals wanted by Italian police would be extradited to the Italian Republic.

After that optimistic declarations arrived from Rome. After his meeting with minister Maras, deputy Italian minister of internal affairs, Jean Niccolo Sinicci stated:

"We were convinced about the resolute will of minister Maras and Montenegrin government to initiate uncompromising struggle against organised crime. I have informed minister Maras that we will be side by side with Montenegrin government in this struggle."

That very night, after agreement reached by representatives of Montenegrin and Italian police, as mentioned, Italian smugglers in Bar and at the Adriatic were hunted down.

Towards the end of last year, another agreement was reached by the judiciary and the police of Italy and Montenegro on cooperation in the struggle against the mob. "Montenegro, paradise for bosses from Pulla, is condemned to become history as such. A faded postcard, no more". This was the wording of the beginning of an article published in daily Gazzeta di mezogiorno from which Montenegrin public learnt about this important meeting held in the Palace of Justice in Bari which was passed over in silence by media in Montenegro.

The meeting was supposed to lay the foundations for joint struggle against Italian mob bosses who have found refuge and protection in the past several years on this side of the Adriatic, but also an Eldorado for development of their illegal deals. That is why organised crime has in the past years been often linked to the name of Montenegro. The well informed claim that there are about 400 Italians living for years only in Bar, although economic cooperation between Montenegro and Italy has not been on a lower level in the past half a century!

During his European tour on the eve of last year's presidential elections, Montenegrin president Milo Djukanovic met Italian foreign minister Lamberto Dini in Rome. As Italian press claimed, the only topic of the talks was smuggling across the Adriatic and Italian mobsters in Montenegro. But it seems that Italian and Montenegrin authorities have not until now reached a definite agreement to banish Italian mobsters and their assistants from the "paradise".

Those who are well informed claim that the main protagonists of the growing smuggling of tobacco, narcotics, arms and other goods will remain out of reach of justice, for at least two reasons. They have enough money to keep possible witnesses silent, and it is not at all convenient for Montenegrin authorities to give up on the "Adriatic tobacco route" which brings Montenegro 60 per cent of its annual income. Therefore, they all have very good reasons to hush up the whole affair as soon as possible and enable fast boats to continue transporting their profitable cargo. Indeed, the prosecutor who indicted minister Branko Perovic, Lucciano D'Angelo, declared to the latest issue of Monitor that he did not expect Montenegrin foreign minister to appear at Italian court.

Veseljko Koprivica

(AIM)