The investigative judge of the Higher Court in Podgorica ordered 30 day detention to the New Tobacco Factory in Podgorica (NDKP) CEO Isat Boljevic, who has been associated with smuggling about 8,000 packages of smuggled cigarettes, Dnevne Novine newspaper reports.
Boljevic was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of abusing office in economy and brought to the prosecutor’s office for questioning.
He has pleaded not guilty before the prosecutor, arguing that the cigarettes seized in a warehouse of the Golden Gate company were not intended for illegal exports, but stored there because there was no room in the NDPK warehouse. He also claimed that he required a permission to export cigarettes from the competent state authorities.
There was an arrest warrant issued against Boljevic and he turned himself in to the police at the Bozaj border crossing. He told the investigators that he had not been on the run, but that he had been on a business trip. He said he had informed the prosecutor’s office about his arrival in the country.
Prosecutors suspect Boljevic and Viktor Dresaj of organising smuggling of the cigarettes of various brands, unknown to the local market. Apparently, the raw tobacco was smuggled from Albania and then it was processed in NDKP.
The cigarettes were then stored on the outskirts of Podgorica and prepared for smuggling to the Middle East. A part of those cigarettes was seized fifteen days ago in a warehouse in Tuzi which was rented from the Golden Gate company. Allegedly, the Golden Gate’s warehouse was not the only one used for this purpose.
The operation of Special Prosecutor’s Office and the police has been launched several months ago, when the first operational data appeared on suspicious business in NDKP and storage of cigarettes without excise stamps. Shortly after the seizure, police inspectors entered NDKP and collected all business documents for analysis.
