Montenegrin police have busted a ring that smuggled luxury cars and arrested six persons – Zeljko Petranovic (32), Ivan Djurovic (40) and Mijo Mijovic (35) from Podgorica, Dragoljub Stamatovic (61) from Danilovgrad, Momo Lekovic (48) from Budva and Vladan Kovacevic (26) from Zabljak.
The operation codenamed Range Rover has lasted for almost a year.
Within it, the police have found 62 stolen luxury cars in the territory of several countries, including Montenegro.
Police obtained information that 46 high class vehicles, which had been stolen abroad, were being transported to Albania via Montenegro over a long period. Illegal roads and forged documents were used in the process.
“Montenegrin police found 29 luxury cars, including brand Range Rover, Mercedes, Audi and BMW, thus preventing smuggling the vehicles to Albania. In addition, a national search for seven vehicles has been issued. Relevant checks showed that the cars were registered in Montenegro on the basis of forged documents,” Police Directorate’s spokeswoman Tamara Popovic said at today’s press conference.
Police suspect the arrested people of transporting luxury cars to Montenegro via illegal routes, avoiding official border crossing points or passing them with forged documents.
“After that, they allegedly altered chassis number on the vehicles to match them with forged foreign documents and then registered them in the territory of Montenegro on names of natural persons owning bonds, thus preparing the cars for further sale. By searching flats and other premises in which the suspects live or stay, things that are suspected to be used for committing these crimes, including the keys of the stolen vehicles, documents related to the vehicles, mobile phones and SIM cards, were found and seized,” said Popovic.
Police also filed a criminal complaint against B.V. (43) from Podgorica, who is on the run, and A.M. (41) from Budva, who is not currently in Montenegro.
“These individuals are being sought,” said Popovic.
