The former director of the State Police in Montenegro is arrested

The Special State Prosecutor's Office has confirmed that the former director of the Police of Montenegro, Vesselin Velovi♪, was arrested on Monday, and he is charged with "criminal acts of creating a criminal organization, abuse of official position and smuggling". Three other people face the same charges.

"The Special Police Department, by order of the Special Prosecutor's Office, has deprived VV and MN of their freedom, and a criminal case has been filed against them, as well as against AM and NM, who are wanted", said the statement of the Prosecutor's Office .

In it, it is said that the police officials also raided the apartments and other facilities owned by the arrested.

"The evidence against them was collected in cooperation with the European Union Agency for Cooperation and Rule of Law - EUROPOL".

Among other things, the Montenegrin authorities have warned that their activities in this direction will continue in the following days.

Who is Veselin Velovic?

Velovic was the director of the Police of Montenegro in the period 2007-2011, and from mid-2018 to the end of 2020.

In the period between the two mandates, he was an adviser to the former president of Montenegro, Filip Vujanovic, on security and defense issues, and in the Government of the former prime minister Milo Djukanovic, from 2014 he was the secretary of the National Security Council.

Since the end of 2020, after the change of Government in Montenegro, he has been Djukanovic's advisor on security issues, until May 20 of this year. Djukanovic lost the presidential elections in April this year.

Velovic had important functions in the Police of Montenegro, even before the independence of the state. In the period 1995-2005, he was the commander of the Special Anti-Terrorism Unit.

In the late 1990s, during the political upheaval between Djukanovic, then Prime Minister of Montenegro, and the former president of the state, Momor Bullatovic, who was loyal to the former Yugoslav leader, Slobodan Milosevic, Velovic prevented in January 1998, an attempt by Bullatovic's supporters to occupy the government building.

Later, Velovic was linked to several affairs in the economy, in which the police participated. He has been arrested for attacking an official in the September 2021 protests in Cetinje, as the ordination of Metropolitan Ioaniki in the Serbian Orthodox Church in that city was opposed.

He was released after two days in detention, and then, in May, the Supreme Court in Podgorica overturned the decision of the first instance to release Velović./REL