Tobacco.org

• PM's testimony on smuggling and mafia links 'shameful' say opposition leaders 

The testimony by Montenegro's prime minister Milo Djukanovic (photo) on cigarette smuggling before Italian prosecutors in the southern Italian city of Bari was a shame for the country, opposition leaders said on Monday.

Djukanovic, who has been considered the absolute political leader of Montenegro for the past eighteen years, surprisingly appeared before Bari prosecutors last Friday, answering their questions for more than six hours. . . .

Djukanovic is being investigated for a multimillion-dollar cigarette smuggling operation to Italy and for offering free access and shelter to Italian mafia members in Montenegro ports between 1994 and 2002.

He has repeatedly denied the charges and the rumours that he was being investigated. . . .

Nebojsa Medojevic, the leader of the main opposition party, the Movement for Changes, said Djukanovic had shamed Montenegro by refusing to answer all of the 80 questions put by Bari prosecutors, invoking diplomatic immunity.

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Cigarette smugglers caught at Bulgarian Greek border  

Tens of thousands of cigarettes were seized at the Kulata border crossing between Bulgaria and Greece on January 31.

Nikolai Shoushkov, head of customs at the border crossing, said the cigarettes were found in a car with a Bulgarian registration.

The cigarettes were found in the luggage and in hidden compartments in the car, Focus news agency quoted Shoushkov as saying.

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• Charges brought against Tobacco Mafia 

The Special Prosecution has announced that it has launched proceedings against the so-called Tobacco Mafia.

The prosecution has pressed charges relating to abuse of authority and cigarette smuggling against nine suspects - Siniša Stoj?i?, Dejan Milenovi?, Mihajl Kertes, Petar Milenkovi?, Nebojša Nikoli?, Stojan Miši?, Radisav Gvozdenovi?, Nenad Živadinovi? and Zdravko Hristov.

The inquiry determined that evidence existed that the group, whose ringleaders were Stoj?i? and his brother Radovan who was killed in 1997, by using the business structure of the R5 company in Niš owned by Siniša, and with the assistance of Customs officials and staff, allowed lorries carrying undeclared cigarettes to pass through the frontier unhindered.

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Indictment issued for cigarette smuggling 

The Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office has indicted Stanko Subotić for involvement in cigarette smuggling activities.

Fourteen other people have been indicted along with Subotić, the controversial Geneva-based Serbian businessman.

The indictment states that the group illegally earned DM 56mn, together with some USD 8mn, during the 1990s.

Former Customs chief Mihalj Kertes is among the indicted. Prosecution spokesman Tomo Zorić said that the investigation into this case had begun six months ago. . . .

Those indicted include Stanko Subotić, Mihalj Kertes, Nikola Milošević, Milan Ranković, Ivan Krčmaričić, Jovica Ranđelović, Stevan Banović, Nebojša Nikolić, Milan Milanović, Drago Dodevski, Ivana Olujić, Miodrag Zavišić, Milovan Popivoda, Miroslav Pešić and Luka Nenadić.

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Bulgarian Police Bust Cigarette Smuggling Ring 

Bulgaria's border police busted on Saturday a cigarette smuggling ring at Oltomantzi on the border with Serbia, in the Kyustendil region in western Bulgaria.

Two Bulgarian nationals were arrested on charges of organising the smuggling on the Bulgarian side of the border, together with nearly 37,000 cigarette packs, worth some BGN 73 000 on the Bulgarian market.

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Eve-Ann Prentice obituary  

Her death robs British journalism of a doughty, principled and brave reporter, whose own long fight against cancer always came second to her insistence on pursuing a story to the end. . . .

In one of her last dispatches, in March last year, she wrote an account of her six-hour meeting with him in his prison cell. She had smuggled in two croissants, and Milosevic, courteous but pale and clearly in poor health, offered her in return one of his Davidoff cigarettes. . . .

her fairness, balance and refusal to be a propaganda outlet won her widespread respect: her disappearance after the Nato attack was front-page news.

Eve-Ann Page was born in 1952 . . .

impressing her colleagues with her passion for the plight of farm labourers in tied cottages, her dedication to smoking and her ability to drink a pint of Elgood's bitter in four and a half seconds. . . .

She died of cancer on September 20, 2007, aged 55

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Parliament ratifies CEFTA Agreement, adopts amendments to laws on citizenship, tobacco 

Parliament also adopted amendments to the Law on tobacco which put an end to the previously compulsory tobacco-purchase system and bring excise on home and imported tobacco to the same level.

The Law on tobacco has thus been harmonised with regulations of the EU and the World Trade Organisation and the CEFTA agreement.

The law aims at enabling equal and stable conditions for developing domestic tobacco industry, increasing productivity and exporting domestic processed tobacco and tobacco products.

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Prosecution probes tobacco smuggling 

-- The Special Organized Crime Prosecution launched an investigation into a tobacco smuggling ring led by Anton Stanaj.

Stanaj was arrested at Belgrade Airport on September 13, while waiting to board a flight to Podgorica.

Interior Minister Dragan Jo�i� confirmed at the time that five more persons suspected of belonging to the same group had been apprehended, including Pajo Juri�, Stevan Stevanovi�, Erik Karadzon, Slavisa Jurisi� i Sre�ko Miranovi� . . .

Joćić explained that cigarettes had been smuggled from China, Croatia and Dubai, transferred via the ports of Bar in Montenegro, Bari in Italy and Rijeka in Croatia to reach Serbia and Hungary.

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Possibilities for promotion of domestic tobacco growing and increase of exports  

Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Bozidar Djelic spoke today with representatives of all tobacco companies with production capacities in Serbia on the future of the tobacco industry and its position in the context of signing Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) and Central European Free Trade Association (CEFTA). . . .

The meeting was attended by representatives of Philip Morris, British American Tobacco (BAT), Japan Tobacco International (JTI), Monus and representatives of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management. (Economy, August 31.)

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• No one spared in cigarette smuggling case 

BELGRADE -- Special Prosecutor Slobodan Radovanović said that no one will be spared in the cigarette smuggling investigation.

Everyone who was involved and who people claim was involved in smuggling tobacco will be investigated, including Delta Holding owner Miroslav Mišković, Radovanović said.

“If there is evidence against Mišković, he will be included in the action. I repeat, only if there is evidence. Everyone is being questioned, I did not leave anyone out, but I cannot announce investigations,” Radovanović told Danas.

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MONTENEGRO: FORMER PREMIER'S FATE UNCLEAR FOLLOWING CIGARETTE SMUGGLING PROBE 

ro's government has received no notification from Italian prosecutors that former prime minister Milo Djukanovic will be indicted for his alleged role in a multi-million dollar mafia racket involving smuggling cigarettes to Italy, according to Montenegrin foreign minister Milan Rocen. "If there really was something against him, the Italian authorities would have informed us," Rocen said. "If Djukanovic were afraid of an indictment, he wouldn't have withdrawn from all state posts, he added.

Reacting to press reports that Djukanovic - who resigned as prime minister after leading the country to independence from Serbia last year - would be indicted by the Italian prosecutors, Rocen told Podgorica daily Vijesti that he was a good friend of Djukanovic and knew nothing of the intended indictment, despite daily contacts.

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Milosevic's Fugitive Widow Denies Smuggling Charges  

Speaking one day after an international warrant was issued for her arrest, Mira Markovic, the widow of late Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, has denied accusations that she once led a lucrative smuggling ring, RFE/RL’s South Slavic and Albanian Languages Service reported.

Markovic left Serbia in 2003 after being charged with abuse of power. Her son, Marko Milosevic, fled in October 2000 after his father fell from power. Both are rumored to be living in Russia.

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Milosevic's exiled widow and son face arrest for cigarette smuggling  

Serbia will issue arrest warrants for Slobodan Milosevic's widow and son on charges of organising a cigarette-smuggling ring in the 1990s, theJustice Minister, Dusan Petrovic, said yesterday.

Mirjana Markovic, Milosevic's widow, and their son Marko have lived in self-imposed exile in Russia for several years. Fearing arrest, they have not returned to Serbia, even for Milosevic's funeral last year, after he died of a heart attack while on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague. The Serbian Interior Minister, Dragan Jocic, said it was not clear if the "foreign country" where Ms Markovic and Marko Milosevic were hiding would react positively to the demand.

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Serbia to issue arrested warrants for Milosevic's widow and son 

Serbia will issue arrest warrants for Slobodan Milosevic's widow and son on charges of organizing a cigarette-smuggling ring in the 1990s, the justice minister said Thursday.

Mirjana Markovic, Milosevic's widow, and their son Marko have lived in a self-imposed exile in Russia for the past several years.

Fearing arrest, they have not returned to Serbia, even for Milosevic's funeral last year, after he died of a heart attack while on trial at the UN war crimes tribunal for former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands.

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• Milosevic's widow and son to be charged with cigarette smuggling  

Slobodan Milosevic's widow and their son face charges of organizing a cigarette smuggling gang in the 1990s, Serbia's public prosecutor said Monday.

Special public prosecutor for organized crime, Slobodan Radovanovic, said the state prosecution office would demand the freezing of all bank accounts and property belonging to the two in Serbia.

Milosevic's widow, Mirjana Markovic, and his son Marko have lived in a self-imposed exile in Russia for the past several years. Radovanovic indicated that an international arrest warrant would be issued for the two.

Another 15 people, some members of Milosevic's regime in the 1990s, were arrested earlier this month on similar charges.

The indictment against them alleges that they transferred millions of dollars to dozens of off shore accounts during U.N. sanctions in the 1990's, after making enormous tax-free profits on the illicit cigarette trade.

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