Director of the Revenue and Customs Administration in Montenegro, Rade Miloshevic, has been arrested by order of the Office of the Special State Prosecutor. 

He is suspected of having participated in the organization of a chain that smuggled some of the cigarettes that were confiscated this summer in the Free Customs Zone in the Port of Bari. 

In this port, according to British data, over 2 billion tons of cigarettes are smuggled every year. This summer, the authorities have carried out three confiscation actions. 

On June 12, 3.5 million EUR worth of cigarettes were confiscated, on June 14, 1.2 million EUR worth of cigarettes were confiscated, and in mid-May, tens of millions of EUR worth of tobacco were confiscated, Prime Minister Dritan Abazovi? said at the time. 

In addition to Milosevic, several other people were arrested in Nikši? and Podgorica in the operation of the Special Police Department, which was carried out by order of the Office of the Special State Prosecutor and the National Security Agency. 

The arrested are suspected of having participated in the smuggling of confiscated tobacco, which was allegedly burned in several ovens in two factories in Montenegro. 

Office of the Special Prosecutor believes that some of the unburned cigarette packs, as reported in the Internal Revenue Service documents, ended up in the smuggling chain. 

In the event where the cigarettes were burned, which took place on September 30, Prime Minister Abazovi? and Miloševi? also participated, who declared that the destruction of cigarettes by the Revenue and Customs Administration represents a major blow to the criminal groups of involved in the contraband of cigarettes. 

This was not the only action for the destruction of cigarettes. In the middle of the year, the same administration had organized the destruction of cigarettes in the factory in Javorak. 

An hour before Milosevic's arrest was announced, Prime Minister Abazovic and Interior Minister Filip Anzhik welcomed the action of the Special Prosecutor's Office in preventing cigarette smuggling. 

Milosevic is a senior official of Dritan Abazovic's URA Civic Movement, who is the Technical Prime Minister of Montenegro, Radio Free Europe reported.