The Special State Prosecutor’s Office of Montenegro is charging Milo Božović with the creation of a criminal organization and the production and sale of drugs, the spokesman of the prosecution, Vukas Radonjić, confirmed today.
Montenegrin special prosecutors claim that the president of the municipality of Budva, Milo Božović, was arrested participated in cocaine smuggling involving police officers Mileta Ojdanić and Ljubo Milović, but the defenders of the arrested Božović claim that these are impossible and unsustainable constructions.
The day before yesterday, Božović was detained by members of the Special Police Department of Montenegro (SPO) on suspicion of having created a criminal organization. cocaine smugglers. Investigating judge Goran Šćepanović ordered him to be detained for up to 30 days, after a hearing in the Podgorica High Court, Vijesti writes.
“Vijesti” sources claim that the prosecutors the first man of Budva is connected with the so-called police drug cartel, who worked for the Kavačac criminal clan. In a major police operation against that organization, several police officers were recently arrested and warrants were issued for six of their colleagues. No one has officially connected Božović with that clan, and in the statement made the day before yesterday by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office (SDT), it is only stated that suspected of “three criminal acts – unauthorized production, possession and distribution of narcotic drugs”.
“This is as if someone claims that at this moment Ukraine and Russia have the best possible cooperation. I can’t draw a better parallel… The fact is that he is not in this process. In this way, anyone can push into the process,” he said. one of his defense attorneys, lawyer Miroje Jovanović. He repeated that it was purely a political showdown with his client. From SDT, however, they claim that it is Božović had to be detained, because the fact that he “enjoys a great reputation among his fellow citizens” has special weight.
After a three-hour hearing of Božović in court, the lawyer concluded that the prosecutors had not presented any evidence and that there was no room for criminal prosecution against his client. He pointed out that SDT has a procedural problem and that the entire construction is absolutely unfounded. “It is important to emphasize that the prosecution has nothing… There are no more rights here, this is pure politics,” he said.
What was found on Skye?
Jovanović explained to journalists that the prosecution’s thesis about Božović’s criminal activities is also based on Sky communication, which they received through international legal aid. However, he claims that his client is not in it. “What is the content? How do we know that Milo Božović is there? There is none,” said Jovanović. He added that during the hearing, Božović, his colleague, lawyer Danilo Mićović, and he – for almost two hours, documented “why there is no place for criminal prosecution or detention.”
“For everything we said, we had a direct document, or referred to acts or procedures of this court and SDT… The proposal for ordering detention is contradictory to some other proceedings that are being conducted, but I leave that to them and the prosecutor’s organization.”, said the lawyer. He also points out that he asked the judge and the special prosecutor what Božović was running away from.
“SDT says that he is respectable, elected four months ago with more than 50 percent of the vote, and now he will run away from the position to which he was elected. “We haven’t seen anyone running away from office,” he said. A group of police officers, alleged collaborators of the mafia, with whom SDT connects Božovićis suspected of using the money obtained from cocaine smuggling to influence the results of the parliamentary elections in August 2020, and of appointing trusted people to top positions in the Police Directorate.
This is stated, among other things, in the files of the SDT, on whose order several policemen were arrested in mid-March, suspected of working for organized criminal groups instead of the state. According to the evidence obtained by the Special State Prosecutor’s Office, that group of policemen – mafia mercenaries was formed in 2019 by Ljubo Milović (40), Mileta Ojdanić (51) and Radoje Zvicer (41). Investigators claim that the three of them used the money earned from international cocaine smuggling to buy votes ahead of next year’s elections.
Their team is accused of smuggling at least three tons of cocaine with their collaborators, intimidating members of other criminal clans, witnesses, and passing confidential information to the heads of the Kavac criminal clan, informing them if someone’s arrest was about to be arrested…
The prosecutor’s office is suspicious that he “walked often”
Lawyer Jovanović said that the SDT, in the proposal for ordering custody, states that Božović crossed the state border 55 times in the last five years and went outside Montenegro. “We, the defenders, stood up. I crossed the state border ten times in ten days… Of those, I entered Montenegro four or five times. That’s the president of the Municipality. And imagine, no evidence or trace of where that man went. There is no evidence, we will see if our arguments will be understood by the court,” Jovanović said. He added that it is about the honor and reputation of a person, about the municipality he manages, the political group he belongs to and which is attacked by this.
“Brother, we are criminals”
However, the messages that SDT claims were sent by Božović via the encrypted phone application Sky say otherwise. “Brother, we are out of the system, we are criminals”, is one such message. According to the same information, that message was sent during the period when the arrested president of the Municipality of Budva was in the parliamentary position.
In the prosecutor’s files, “Vijesti” sources claim, it is also written that Božović is the godfather of the arrested Ojdanić. “Vijesti” was unofficially told that Božović denied it.
(MONDO/Vijesti)