Montenegro Mulls Banning Tobacco Storage in Bar to Counter Smuggling

Port of Bar in Montenegro. Photo: Government of Montenegro

"Our international partners' reports have expressed concern over the large volume of illegal transit and illegal placing on the market of tobacco products on the territory of Montenegro. They also emphasize that activities in the Port of Bar indicate the existence of security risks," the government said.

"In the next two weeks, competent ministries will analyze what consequences a ban on cigarette storage will have on the state budget," it added.

Since the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, Bar has been a well-known hub for cigarette smuggling, where cigarettes from abroad are re-exported and those made in Montenegro are shipped.

Police in 2019 seized 1.7 million cigarette packs worth some 3.9 million euros. In August 2018, police arrested 10 customs officials from the port for smuggling cigarettes - but no convictions followed.

In May 2019, a BIRN investigation showed that Montenegro had again become the hub of a global tobacco smuggling scam, funneling millions of copycat cigarettes into the EU through the use of "ghost" ships, shell companies, and using fake paperwork.

A 2019 report from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, an NGO, said the port of Bar was main hotspot in Montenegro for smuggling so-called "cheap white" cigarettes.

They are exported from Montenegro by mostly offshore firms using similar routes and often the same "ghost" fishing boats or small cargo ships, sailing the Mediterranean without transmitting their positions. Most shipments list Libya as their final destination but Egypt, North Cyprus and Lebanon also featured.

"Some warehouses at the port are kept only for smuggled cigarettes, and private companies are...