http://www.tobacco.org/newsfeed/country/montenegro.rss Latest top tobacco news headlines en-us http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2011&mm=12&dd=22&nav_id=77928 http://tobacco.org/news/330918.html Movement for Changes (PZP) leader Nebojša Medojević has accused Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Milan Roćen of being behind the illegal cigarette trade. He said at the Montenegrin parliament that smuggled cigarettes made at least 50 percent of tobacco products on the Montenegrin market. "According to my information, the foreign minister and his people are behind the illegal cigarette trade in Montenegro," the PZP leader stressed. Radio B92 ftp://b92@www.b92.net ( Source: Tanjug ) Montenegro Thu, 22 Dec 2011 05:00:00 GMT http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/07/AR2011010701604.html http://tobacco.org/news/313249.html Bags of cash delivered to the office of a prime minister with a penchant for expensive watches. A dizzying fortune amassed by another from years of tobacco smuggling. Wherever you look, accusations are flying about high-level corruption in the Balkans. But while some say it's endemic, others see progress: In a region torn apart by war two decades ago, nations now aspire to join the European Union and there's a more urgent need to pursue and prosecute. "For many years, organized crime and corruption encountered few obstacles preventing their growth or stunting their influence in southeastern Europe," says Balkan political analyst Misha Glenny. "That is now changing largely because of the conditions imposed by the European Union on regional governments to clean up their acts." The accusations are being fought by former and current leaders of Croatia, Montenegro and Kosovo. But nerves are being rattled far beyond their nations' borders. . . . Italian authorities have investigated Djukanovic for allegedly being part of a smuggling ring in the 1990s that brought cigarettes on motorboats into Italy and then the rest of western Europe from across the Adriatic. The probe was dropped in 2009 because of his diplomatic immunity. He has denied the accusations, but said the smuggling - a multi-million-dollar operation - helped Montenegro survive international sanctions imposed on the regime of late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic for fomenting the wars in the Balkans. The charges against the three men have put a dent in the trust accorded them by the West. The Washington Post ombudsman@washpost.com (DUSAN STOJANOVIC The Associated Press ) Italy Montenegro Balkans Fri, 07 Jan 2011 05:00:00 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/76301e50-0d1a-11e0-ace7-00144feabdc0.html http://tobacco.org/news/312647.html Montenegro’s prime minister, Milo Djukanovic, resigned on Tuesday in a move expected to advance his tiny Balkan country’s efforts to join the European Union. He designated as his successor Igor Luksic, the 34-year-old finance minister, a technocrat seen as untainted by the corruption prevailing since the 1990s. . . . During the 1990s, when Mr Milosevic’s Serbia was under international economic sanctions, Montenegro became a base for smuggling across the Adriatic to Italy. This included the lucrative export of cigarettes without customs stamps into the EU market. Mr Djukanovic invoked diplomatic immunity to avoid prosecution in Italy, where he had been indicted for 1990s cigarette smuggling. By his own admission, Montenegro relied on irregular business to resist Belgrade’s control. The cigarette trade never broke local laws, only becoming illegal on entry to the EU, and he never personally profited, he told the Financial Times. Financial Times Montenegro Tue, 21 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d4d9da1e-fd65-11df-a049-00144feab49a.html http://tobacco.org/news/311733.html Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s former prime minister, has found a new, more amenable base from which to pursue his private business ambitions. Montenegro, the tiny ex-Yugoslav country that achieved independence four years ago, has a prime Adriatic coastal location, plentiful harbours, wide beaches with room for development, and a craving for more foreign investment. But besides encouraging his business interests, the country has also given Thaksin a new passport – and Montenegrin citizenship. . . . When asked about the decision to give Thaksin a passport, Milo Djukanovic, the Montenegrin prime minister, told the Financial Times: “He didn’t have a judgment against him in his own country at the time, according to our information. He’s not on any Interpol arrest warrant, which would be binding for us.” Since granting Thaksin citizenship in March, Djukanovic has resolved to extend that privilege to other wealthy investors. . . . “Djukanovic lacks the courage to initiate real economic reforms,” says Milka Tadic-Mijovic, an opposition journalist. A long-running trial in the Italian court of Bari centres on cigarette smuggling from Montenegro into the EU, just as the former Yugoslavia was being torn apart by ethnic wars. Several of Djukanovic’s business associates are on trial (although prosecutors had to drop his indictment two years ago because of his diplomatic immunity). But such shady dealings, he insists, were necessary for Montenegro to distance itself from the regime of Slobodan Milosevic, the Yugoslav-Serb leader who died four years ago while on trial for genocide: “We had to try to make ends meet against a backdrop of sanctions, so some people and companies [here] were engaged in various smuggling operations,” Djukanovic says. The prime minister insists he did not break any Montenegrin laws. “I steered Montenegro through the dangers of Milosevic,” he says. “And today, Montenegro is an independent nation moving towards its goals: Nato and EU membership.” The cigarette trade breaks no Montenegrin laws, he adds – although it does become illegal at the point of crossing into the EU. Djukanovic denies that Montenegro also became a base for drug smuggling and massive money laundering, as US and European anti-narcotics agencies have suggested. Financial Times Thailand Montenegro Thu, 02 Dec 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/19/business/global/19montenegro.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=cigarette&st=nyt http://tobacco.org/news/306443.html "This is better than St. Tropez," Milo Djukanovic, the prime minister of Montenegro, exclaimed as he took in a display of yachts berthed in this mountain-shrouded bay on the eastern shore of the Adriatic Sea. Hardly. But if Mr. Djukanovic and a group of foreign businessmen supporting him have their way, the port of Tivat, now just 20 percent complete, could become a new playground for the super-rich and the centerpiece of tiny Montenegro's audacious effort to clean up its image of corruption and gain entry to the European Union. . . . According to the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Mr. Djukanovic admitted to being involved in running a cigarette trading company in the 1990s, during the war that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia, but he has persistently denied charges of any illegality. Italian prosecutors in Naples issued an order for his arrest in 2005, accusing him of being at the center of a conspiracy by Montenegrin officials and the Italian Mafia to smuggle huge quantities of cigarettes. The charges were eventually dropped after Montenegro became independent from Serbia and Italian courts granted Mr. Djukanovic diplomatic immunity. New York Times Italy Montenegro Serbia Thu, 19 Aug 2010 04:00:00 GMT http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2010&mm=02&dd=25&nav_id=65439 http://tobacco.org/news/297686.html ZAGREB -- The Montenegrin tobacco mafia is behind the murder of Croat journalist and publisher Ivo Pukanić, Montenegrin businessman Ratko Knežević said. He was testifying at the murder trial in Zagreb on Thursday, saying that Stanko Subotić, aka Cane, and Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Đukanović were behind the crime. "The tobacco mafia started threatening Pukanić right after he published the first articles on Montenegro's state-sanctioned cigarette smuggling in the discontinued daily Rebulika," Knežević said in his testimony before the Zagreb District Court. . . . Pukanić died, along with another victim, when a car bomb exploded in Zagreb in the fall of 2008. Radio B92 Montenegro Croatia Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/main/news/23618/ http://tobacco.org/news/292536.html A decision on possible court proceedings against a group of nationals from Montenegro, Italy and Serbia on their alleged involvement in an international cigarettes smuggling ring will be discussed in January, a court in Bari, Italy, decided. According to local media, the decision on possible court proceedings will be determined on 18 January. They are accused of being involved in cigarette smuggling between 1994 and 2000, and the list includes seven Italians, five Montenegrins and two Serbs, broadcaster RTS reports. The trial began in November 2001. The Prosecutor of Bari's court, Giuseppe Scelsi, included Montenegrin Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic in the investigation due to his alleged role in the smuggling. "For almost a decade, Montenegro has been a haven for illegal trafficking, where criminals acted with impunity, while the ports of Bar and Kotor were used as logistics bases for motor boats, with protection which was guaranteed by the government," the court's document says. Balkan Insight.com Italy Montenegro Eastern Europe Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:00:00 GMT http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/1398/ http://tobacco.org/news/285207.html In December, the administration of Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic announced that Montenegro would bail out First Bank (Prva banka), one of the country’s largest financial institutions and a major investor in the Montenegrin boom. First Bank is majority owned by Djukanovic, two siblings, and a close friend. Members of local watchdog groups, opposition parties, and journalists say this is just another example of the government’s interests aligning with the financial interests of the first family. They say their small country — fewer than 700,000 people in less space than the U.S. state of Connecticut — seems at times like the private corporation of the prime minister and his family. With Djukanovic’s political party handily winning elections at the end of March, the prime minister is expected to remain in power for another two years. “Montenegro is a lawless country,” charges Milka Tadic, editor of the country’s influential Monitor magazine. “And if you are part of the government or close to its circles you can do whatever you want.” Djukanovic has amassed a level of wealth that is hard to explain given his meager government salary over the years. Some believe his wealth stems from his days in the tobacco smuggling business. Italian prosecutors place the prime minister at the center of a conspiracy by Montenegrin officials and the Italian Mafia that allegedly smuggled huge quantities of cigarettes for about 10 years starting in the 1990s, although prosecutors did not specifically allege that Djukanovic profited personally from smuggling. Allegations of corruption are attracting interest outside Montenegro . . . “What is obvious is that Mr. Djukanovic and a number of government officials amassed enormous riches during the 1990s, and now with that money they are unabashedly buying Montenegrin companies,” said Alexander Damjonovic, a member of Parliament for the opposition Socialist People’s Party of Montenegro (SNP). “They are investing money in the capital markets. They are buying real estate.” How the family accumulated its wealth is not clear. Critics say the Djukanovics made a series of lucrative business deals, and that the prime minister has been involved in repeated conflicts of interests. Center for Public Integrity Montenegro Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.publicintegrity.org/investigations/tobacco/articles/entry/1397/ http://tobacco.org/news/285206.html “My little cat … I’m going crazy without you …. You have repeatedly betrayed me, I think …. Little cat, when are you coming? ... I love you, little cat.” On Jan. 4, 2001, Dusanka Pesic Jeknic, representative of the Montenegrin trade mission in Milan, Italy, was speaking on the phone at her home in the southwest of the city. Milo Djukanovic, at that time president of Montenegro, was calling from the capital Podgorica. Billions of people around the world had just hailed the New Millennium. Dusanka, nicknamed “Duska,” the beautiful 41-year-old widow of the late foreign minister of Montenegro, was alone, far from her country. And she spoke out freely about everything: love, tobacco, and crime. Eight years after Jeknic’s loving conversation with her president, transcripts of her phone calls, wiretapped by the Italian police for 20 months, are attached to hundreds of thousands of court records filed by the prosecutor’s office in Bari, in southern Italy. Here, in the Apulia region’s capital, facing Montenegro across the Adriatic Sea, prosecutors Giuseppe Scelsi and Eugenia Pontassuglia have at last wrapped up their long-running investigation of Djukanovic, Jeknic, and six other Montenegrins and Serbs, as well as seven Italians allegedly tied to organized crime. Their indictment charged the group with, among other offenses, mafia association aimed at illicit trafficking of tobacco, a serious crime in Italy. The indictment and an accompanying 409-page report by Italy’s anti-mafia unit, the DIA, which have not before been made public, provide an extraordinary look inside what may be one of Europe’s biggest smuggling operations in recent years — a tale of corruption, murdered witnesses, and a billion dollars in money laundered through Swiss banks. From 1994 to 2002, smugglers shipped up to one billion cigarettes a month from the Montenegrin port of Bar to the Italian city of Bari and nearby. . . . At the center of this case is a hidden bit of history, say prosecutors, of how tobacco smuggling became a state enterprise in Montenegro . . . Djukanovic is now prime minister of that “Tortuga.” Re-elected in March, he leads a country where for nearly 17 of the past 18 years he has served as either prime minister or president. And he is pushing hard for Montenegro to join the European Union, which is now considering the country’s membership. To that end Djukanovic counts on his main supporter, Italy’s premier Silvio Berlusconi, who in March lauded him during a state-visit in Podgorica. . . . Affiliated with Serbia until 2006, Montenegro is now fully independent, but some EU nations, notably Belgium and Germany, remain skeptical that the country is ready to join the West. Djukanovic has said that the smuggling is a thing of the past . . . Starting June 3, Bari Judge Rosa Calia Di Pinto will hold a preliminary hearing to decide whether or not the evidence gathered by prosecutors is enough to put the indicted on trial. The judge will hear a story of a “mafia war” stretching into 10 countries: not only Italy and Montenegro, but also Serbia, Croatia, Greece, Germany, Switzerland, Cyprus, the Netherlands, Liechtenstein, Aruba, and the United States. So far, two key witnesses and five others mentioned in the case have been murdered. Center for Public Integrity Italy Switzerland Montenegro Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=7766451&page=1 http://tobacco.org/news/285205.html 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." ABC News Italy Montenegro USA Fri, 05 Jun 2009 04:00:00 GMT http://www.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Politics/?id=1.0.2024949321 http://tobacco.org/news/262405.html 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. AKI Italy Montenegro Serbia Mon, 31 Mar 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.reporter.gr/default.asp?pid=16&la=2&art_aid=132140 http://tobacco.org/news/261517.html The agency for protection of workers' rights, Labour and Law (Rad i pravo) has announced instigation of legal proceedings against the Director of the Tobacco Company Pogorica (DKP) because he failed to implement the court decisions on payment of wages.The director of the agency, Radoje Lakusic, said that the wages of the workers had been unilaterally and illegally reduced, which is why the company's debt per worker amounted to EUR 2,000. Reporter Montenegro Wed, 12 Mar 2008 04:00:00 GMT http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/world/europe/10montenegro.html?_r=2&oref=slogin&oref=slogin http://tobacco.org/news/231734.html Montenegrins vote in parliamentary elections on Sunday and few have any doubts who will be the winner. For 15 years, Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic, the longest-serving political leader in the Balkans, has dominated Montenegrin politics and is likely to continue to do so after the votes are counted late Sunday night. . . . Montenegro’s involvement in organized crime has earned it one of the worst reputations in the Balkans. Mr. Djukanovic’s government has long been at the center of corruption allegations, and it was named in a European lawsuit against American tobacco makers alleging collusion in cigarette smuggling. Philip Morris agreed to pay $ 1.25 billion over 12 years in an out-of-court settlement with the European Union in July 2004, with the money earmarked for helping to crack down on the smuggling. Mr. Djukanovic himself faces an arrest warrant in Italy, brought by a court there in 2004 in connection with the smuggling. He dismisses the charges as politically motivated. New York Times Montenegro Sun, 10 Sep 2006 04:00:00 GMT http://www.focus-fen.net/index.php?catid=123&newsid=73782&ch=0&datte=2005-10-06 http://tobacco.org/news/207517.html t. Smuggled cigarettes occupy 25% to 80% share from the markets of Southeastern European states, and 40% of the cigarettes at the Macedonian market had been imported illegally, a publication in today’s Romanian Gandul newspaper reads. According to the edition, Albania ranks first in smuggled cigarettes with a share of 80%, followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with 47%, Macedonia – 40%, Bulgaria – 38%, Serbia and Montenegro – 37%, and Romania and Croatia – 24%. Focus English News Bulgaria Montenegro Serbia Croatia Albania Macedonia Bosnia Bosnia-herzegovina Thu, 06 Oct 2005 04:00:00 GMT http://www.southeasteurope.org/subpage.php?sub_site=2&id=15050&head=hl http://tobacco.org/news/206078.html       Tirana, September 10 2005 – One of Durres' most successful businessmen, (the main port of the country) was arrested this last Friday under charges of being part of an international organized crime for tobacco’s smuggling in the country. “Leonard Koka was arrested based on testimonies which proved he was head of an organized tobacco contraband smuggling from Montenegro to Albania”, chief prosecutor of Tirana Penal Court said. This arrest has been consideredThis was one of the most famous arrest even in Albania. Koka, age 39, is also the brother of the mayor of Durrës, Mr. Lefter Koka, and considered by many a close friend of the ex-Prime Minister Fatos Nano. Southeast Europe Online Montenegro Albania Sat, 10 Sep 2005 04:00:00 GMT