Inspectors of criminal police managed to count over 8 thousand cartons of cigarettes of different brands yesterday, that were seized in a rented warehouse, owned by private company Golden Gate in the Karabusko Polje village, Dnevne Novine daily learns.
Value of seized goods, according to unofficial estimates, is at 4 million EUR, and police officials said that they were onto a trail of organizers of trafficking chain that leads all the way to eastern continent.
Weekend Edition of Dnevne Novine daily learned that during the action, police found operative data that cigarettes without excise marks were produced in New Tobacco Plant in Podgorica, which was confirmed with investigation of warehouses. Unofficially, seized goods should be transferred to another location today.
Checking Boljevic
Weekend Edition of Dnevne Novine daily learned that the significant number of seized cigarettes was produced in New Tobacco Plant, and investigation will focus on the director Isat Boljevic as well.
It is suspected that the trafficked cigarettes were to end up on arabian market, through a trafficking route over Albania. Cigarettes were packed in brands that are unfamiliar our markets.
Golden Gate owners claim they knew nothing
According to unofficial information, inspectors of criminal police had an informational conversation with owner of GG P.Dj. and members of his family who denied any knowledge in the case of trafficked cigarettes.
The warehouse that was used to store trafficked cigarettes was rented three years ago by Lj.Dj., brother of P.Dj., who was in the US during the last couple months.
Important hub for smuggling cigarettes
Police document SoCta for 2015 warns that Montenegro is an important hub for smuggling cigarettes both locally and regionally.
“Lately, there has been problems with smuggling cigarettes through Montenegro. Especially important is Port Bar”, the document reads.
Stronger controls during 2014 and 2015 had 6 million cartons of cigarettes seized, most of which were intended for Montenegro’s market.
New Tobacco Plant was overtaken by BMJ Industries from UAE lasy year. Arabs offered an investement worth of 20 million EUR. Director of company is Isat Boljević, representative of UAE investors in Montenegro. He and Srecko Kesner were in the media before, as an alleged smuggler.
New Tobacco Plant has become a subject of investigation of Special State Prosecution in April last year when bankruptcy manager Veselin Raicevic and executive director of Zetagradnja Milos Stojanovic were arrested due to suspicions that they abused their positions during the bankruptcy of Tobacco Plant in 2010. The procedure is ongoing, and according to unofficial information, it is said that suspicious affairs of Tobacco Plant were discovered by fired workers.
