Regional Investigative Stories
In partnership with the network of investigative journalist “Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project” (OCCRP), in the first half of 2014, we published the Dossier “Unholy Alliances – How Organized Crime, Government and Business interact in Montenegro”[1].
The dossier was composed of five stories that were published online and in several media in the region.
Banks, money laundering, cocaine, exotic resorts, tobacco smuggling and politics are the highlights of the stories that provide actual and hard evidence of connections between organized crime structures and the Montenegrin government. Through a series of stories, we presented a complex scheme gathering criminals and Montenegrin high level politicians and their families, used for money laundering through construction projects, bank loans, but also for narcotics and tobacco smuggling.
After this dossier, MANS published additional three investigative stories describing ties of particular high level officials with cocaine smugglers. Using documents collected during this several-month investigation, MANS submitted three criminal complaints against the key players, including government officials, criminals and politicians.
Based on these criminal complaints, the Special Prosecutor initiated investigation in late 2014.
During 2014, MANS also investigated another organized crime boss accused for heroin smuggling.
Based on the obtained documents on financial affairs of the companies owned and connected with his organized crime structure, we discovered how illegal money was laundered due to loans provided by the government and lack of oversight of the Anti-money Laundering Agency.
Judiciary
MANS analyzed final judicial rulings for organized crime and published the first ever analyses of such kind in the country.
The purpose of the analysis was to objectively overview the influence of the legal and institutional framework, as well as the results of the judiciary in the fight against organized crime, to determine what is behind the official statistical data and effects of implementation of new legal provisions.
We analyzed the legal framework relevant for the fight against organized crime and discovered that many new pieces of legislation are in favor of the persons accused of money laundering and the most severe narcotics smuggling offences with elements of organized crime.
MANS collected all judicial rulings and analyzed problems in court proceedings due to the frequent changes of the legislation.
Special part of our analyses was focused on revealing what types of cases are behind the official statistics.
We also analyzed effects of international cooperation on concrete examples of narcotics smuggling and compared penal polices. The analyses have shown that proceedings before Montenegrin courts last much longer, and their penal policy for international narcotics trafficking is much more lenient than the practice of courts in other countries.
The duration of proceedings, law amendments in favor of accused persons and the extremely lenient penal policy of courts allow for persons dealing with international narcotics smuggling to be convicted to sentences more lenient than their subordinates.
On the other hand, in the rulings against persons who are mainly narcotics users and addicts, and who do not sell narcotics in an organized manner, courts impose much stricter sentences.
Effects of the use of secret surveillance measures and practical implementation of new legal institutes, the cooperating witness and the protected witness were also analyzed on the basis of concrete cases. Finally, we presented problems in access to data, specifically court rulings and case files.
The analyses were presented at the National Conference and distributed to all stakeholders including general public through media.
[1] https://reportingproject.net/unholy-alliances/
