Former senior MUP official did not accept bribe

BELGRADE - A task force of the Serbian Interior Ministry has not found any evidence to corroborate the claims of a man currently on trial over drug trafficking charges according to which former head of the Criminal Police Administration Rodoljub Milovic received a bribe of EUR 1.25 million, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime has said in a release.

During the court proceedings in the cocaine smuggling case, the defendent, Darko Saric, said he had indirect knowledge about Milovic receiving bribes from Dragan Dudic, assassinated in 2010, to make sure Dudic was in a favorable position in the proceedings launched after the 2009 discovery of cocaine smuggling from South America.

However, while checking Saric’s claims, the task force found a link between two monetary transactions conducted in March 2008 that totaled EUR 7,200,000.

After receiving a relevant report from the task force, the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime launched a preliminary investigation on suspicion that the two were money laundering transactions, the statement says.

The prosecutor’s office demanded from that the police to find out who arranged and carried out the transactions, and to collect relevant information.

When it comes to the bribe, during the trial, Saric first spoke about “General Papaja,” but later his story brought criminal police chief Milovic to the fore. He said that Milovic had received the bribe through an intermediary he called “Mango," and that he had therefore rigged the whole process against him.

Saric is on trial for organizing the smuggling of 5.7 tons of cocaine from Latin America to Western Europe, and for laundering EUR 22 million in Serbia.

Photo Tanjug/D...