The State Special Prosecutor in Montenegro confirmed the arrest of former Montenegrin Police director Veselin Veljović on Monday.

He is charged with “criminal acts of creating a criminal organization, abuse of official duty and contraband”.

Three other persons face the same charges.

A statement from the Prosecutor says that police officers have conducted raids in the houses and other objects owned by the arrested persons.

“Testimonies against them have been gathered in collaboration with the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation – Europol.”

The authorities in Montenegro warn that they will continue to conduct similar activities even in the days to come.

Who is Veselin Veljović?

Veljović was the director of the Montenegrin Police from 2007-2011 and again from mid-2018 until the end of 2020.

In the period between his two mandates, he served as a councilor of the former President of Montenegro, Filip Vujanović, on security and defense issues, as well as in the Government of former Prime Minister Milo Đukanović, he served as secretary of the National Security Council from 2014.

From 2020 up until May 20, 2023, when there was a change in the governments of Montenegro, Veljović was a councilor of Đukanović on security issues.

Đukanović lost the presidential elections in April 2023.

Veljović has held other important functions in the Police of Montenegro, even before the state declared independence.

From 1995-2005, he served as a commander of the Special Anti-Terror Unit.

In the end of the ‘90s, during the political unrest between Đukanović, then Prime Minister of Montenegro, and former President Momir Bulatović, who was faithful to the former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milošević, Veljović stopped an attempt of Bulatović’s supporters to invade the governmental building in January 1998.

Later, Veljović was connected to some economic affairs, in which the police took part.

He was arrested during September 2021 protests in Cetinje for assaulting an official, while opposing the ordination of Metropolitan Joanikije in the Serb Orthodox Church of the city.

Veljović was released two days after being kept in detention, and in May, the Supreme Court of Podgorica overruled the first instance ruling of releasing him.