Montenegro Extradites Drugs Trafficking Suspect to Belgium

After eight months in detention in Montenegro, Serge Muller was handed over to the Belgian police after the Montenegrin Justice Ministry approved the extradition, his lawyers told BIRN on Monday.

Muller was extradited early in November under tight security measures and handed over to Belgian police officers at the airport in the capital Podgorica.

He was extradited on the basis of an international arrest warrant accusing him of involvement in an international cocaine ring, the laundering of drug money, and membership of a criminal organization. 

Muller, 59, was arrested in Montenegro following a ceremony sealing the sale of state-owned Montenegro Defense Industry (MDI) to Belgrade-based CPR Impex and Israeli ATL Atlantic Technology Ltd, on March 4. 

A BIRN investigation, published in April, revealed that the ATL-CPR consortium is linked to Muller - he was officially joint owner of ATL's Bulgarian subsidiary, ATL Bulgaria, for more than a year to June 2014.

ATL's website also listed an office in Antwerp's Diamond Exchange Building, the address of several of Muller's companies, according to an investigation by a Belgian journalist in 2012. The address was later taken down. 

Muller denied all the charges and his lawyer told BIRN in April that the evidence presented by Belgium was "poor".

The Djukanovic Law Office, which represented Muller during his detention in Montenegro, confirmed that he was extradited to Belgium, although the appeals court in Podgorica three times overturned the lower court ruling which accepted the Belgian request.

"It took eight months and four attempts to extradite Muller to Belgium," the law firm said in response to a BIRN request on Monday.

Muller, a well-known...