Author: Dejan Milovac, MANS Investigative Centre
Aleksa Stanković, son of the former Supreme State Prosecutor (SSP) of Montenegro, Ivica Stanković, was photographed in early April this year in the company of Darko Šarić, a drug boss accused of international smuggling of 5.7 tons of cocaine to Europe and laundering over 20 million euros suspected of being acquired through the sale of narcotics. When asked by the MANS Investigative Centre on what occasion he was in Šarić’s company, Stanković did not provide an answer.
Aleksa Stanković accompanied by Darko Šarić, Photo: KRIK
The photos were taken on April 6 this year in Nemanjina St. no. 9 in Belgrade, in front of the entrance to the Court of Appeals, where presenting of appeals against the verdict, by which Šarić and his group were convicted of laundering more than 20 million euros, was completed that day. The photos were provided to the MANS Investigative Centre by colleagues from Belgrade’s KRIK.
The end of the trial for money laundering was attended by Darko Šarić himself, who came to the Court of Appeals accompanied by two members of the security. He was also accompanied by Nebojša Jestrović, one of his closest associates, also accused of money laundering, but, as the photos testify, Aleksa Stanković, son of the former Supreme State Prosecutor of Montenegro as well.
Aleksa Stanković is a lawyer by profession and a member of the Bar Association of Montenegro, but it is not clear in what capacity he was in the company of Šarić at the beginning of April, just before the mentioned session of the Court of Appeals in Belgrade.
One of the photos taken that day also shows the close relationship between Aleksa Stanković and Nebojša Jestrović. Although the media have so far mostly reported on relations between the Stanković and Šarić families at the level of speculation about private relations between Aleksa Stanković and Šarić’s daughter, so far, there have been no indications that the son of the former SSP knows anyone from Šarić’s group accused of money laundering.
Namely, one of the photographs shows the close handshake of Stanković and Jestrović just before entering the court. MANS Investigative Centre also sent questions to Aleksa Stanković regarding the circumstances that led to the acquaintance with Jestrović, but we did not receive an answer until the publication of this article.
Stanković and Jestrović shaking hands, Photo: KRIK
According to the investigation published by KRIK earlier, Jestrović is among the most trusted people and, as the prosecution determined, he was in charge within Šarić’s group of finding ways to get dirty money into legal channels. Thus, in 2005, Jestrović founded the company Municipium S which later, according to the prosecution, served Šarić’s group to inject money through fictitious loans that Šarić’s offshore companies gave to this company from Belgrade. According to the prosecution, a similar scenario was applied when it came to Montenegrin companies owned by Šarić, “Maestraltours” and “Mat Company”.
No comments on his son’s connections with Darko Šarić’s group
Ivica Stanković, Photo: Boris Pejović (Vijesti)
Ivica Stanković retired in mid-2021. In an earlier interview, commenting on the fact that his son publicly supported high-ranking DPS official Slavoljub Stijepović after a video of the handover of money in the Envelope affair was published, the then SSP said that his son was “an adult, a grown man with his own views, interests and decisions with which he sometimes does not agree”.
However, when asked by the MANS Investigative Centre regarding his son’s connections with Darko Šarić and members of his criminal group, the former SSP did not provide an answer.
Children of high-ranking officials on the line with organized crime
After the portal Libertas-press from Podgorica published the first transcripts of intercepted conversations of Miloš Medenica, son of the former Montenegrin Supreme Court President Vesna Medenica, submitted to the Montenegrin State Prosecutor’s Office by EUROPOL, evidence of very close ties between senior Montenegrin judicial officials and the police with members of organized crime groups continued to emerge.
While Vesna Medenica, who is currently in custody, is suspected of undue influence on court decisions, new EUROPOL transcripts have revealed links between police inspectors Petar Lazović and Ljubo Milović and Radoje Zvicer, one of the alleged leaders of the Kavači clan.
Proceedings against Šarić in Serbia
In July 2020, Darko Sarić was sentenced to nine years in prison, and his associates to sentences of two to seven years in prison for laundering more than 20 million euros, suspected of being acquired through the international cocaine smuggling. This judgement is not final yet and it is currently being decided by the Court of Appeals in Belgrade. The proceedings in which Šarić is accused of smuggling 5.7 tons of cocaine is also being conducted before the same court. Although Šarić was sentenced to 15 years in prison, the Supreme Court of Cassation revoked this decision and ordered the trial to be repeated before the Court of Appeals. The decision of the Court of Appeals is also expected in this proceedings.
There is an ongoing investigation against Šarić on suspicion that he organized the murder of his former associate Milan Milovac, called Cigla. Because of that, he was arrested last month and returned to prison from the house arrest he had been in since the end of last year.
