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non-USA, by Country
· Italy
· Montenegro
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Italian Mafia and Balkan State Leader Accused of Playing Role in Billion-Dollar Operation
Jump to full article: ABC News, 2009-06-05
Author: ANNA SCHECTER
Intro: Sex, lies, the Italian mafia, millions of packs of Marlboro cigarettes, and billion-dollar profits are all rolled into the plot of one of Europe's largest smuggling operations in recent years, where trials in both Italy and Switzerland are under way.
At the center of it all: the head of state for one of Europe's smallest but most beautiful countries, the coastal nation of Montenegro, the backdrop to the 2006 James Bond film, "Casino Royale."
Based on hundreds of pages of wiretap transcripts, law enforcement reports, and indictments, the scandal sounds like a screenplay. Between 1994 and 2002 tobacco smuggling became a state enterprise of Montenegro, allegedly controlled by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic and an inner circle of Montenegrin officials, according to newly released Italian court records obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), a project of the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C. . . .
The U.S. State Department, meanwhile, has been very supportive of Djukanovic.
"We value our relationship with Montenegro and consider the second newest country in the world a close friend and ally," a state department official told ABC News. "We have excellent relations with the government of Montenegro, including Prime Minister Djukanovic."
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