25 arrests in Montenegrin drug bust

25 arrests in Montenegrin drug bust
28 February 2009 | 09:17 | Source: Tanjug
PODGORICA -- Montenegrin police yesterday arrested 25 people suspected of smuggling drugs from Albanian through Montenegro to Western European countries.

The coordinated operation began on the other side of the border, where Albanian police arrested six people suspected by Montenegrin police of smuggling some 2.5 tons of skunk marijuana at the end of last year and early this year.

The suspects included members of seven criminal groups from Montenegro, of whom one was the ringleader, one a police officer, as well as one prisons administration official from Spuž, according to the Montenegrin police.

The operation was conducted in Podgorica, Nikšić and Bar.

A search of one family home yielded 35 kilograms of skunk and a large supply of weapons and explosives in the suspect’s illegal ownership.

Some EUR 70,000 was also found and confiscated. The money was believed to have been obtained illegally, as were a further 11 cars, 3 trucks and a large number of mobile phones and cards that were also seized.