Police suspect cigarette smuggling on Bosnia-Montenegro border — Balkan Insight

In the Gacko area in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, police suspect a group of local residents of transporting smuggled cigarettes from Montenegro via unofficial mountain routes. According to investigative materials reviewed by Balkan Insight, two alleged participants in the scheme monitored the movements of border patrols and may have used shift-change times.

Route through mountain villages

Investigators believe the cigarettes were transported from the Montenegrin municipality of Plužine to the villages of Lipnik and Avtovac in the Gacko municipality, where they may have been temporarily stored. A paved road about 10 kilometers long runs between Lipnik and the village of Ravno in Plužine, while a legal crossing through the Deleša-Vraćenovići checkpoint means a journey of at least 100 kilometers for local residents.

Case materials state that participants in the alleged scheme used at least nine cars and frequently changed license plates. According to the publication's sources, they may have taken advantage of a gap in patrols from approximately 18:00 to 19:00, when border guards changed shifts at locations remote from the road.

More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.

Trial in Montenegro and market scale

Two men whom Bosnian police link to the scheme denied to the publication that they cooperated with alleged accomplices from Montenegro. At the same time, they admitted that they had previously smuggled cigarettes, for which they were detained and held accountable.

The High Court in Podgorica is hearing a case against nine defendants, including four police officers. Prosecutors claim that an organized group illegally moved more than 22,500 cigarette packages, with 10,000 cigarettes in each, from late 2019 to March 2021. According to the prosecution, unpaid taxes and duties caused Montenegro losses of 17.5 million euros. All defendants pleaded not guilty.

According to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, smuggled cigarettes usually travel from Montenegro through Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia to Slovenia and other European Union countries. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, the share of the illicit tobacco market accounted for 8.4% of total tobacco consumption last year, compared with 32.3% in 2019.