Montenegrin Resort’s Mayor Arrested on Suspicion of Drug Trafficking

Montenegrin Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic (L) and Mayor of Budva Milo Bozovic (R) at a meeting in Budva. Photo: Photo: Government of Montenegro

The Special State Prosecution said the arrest of Bozovic and unnamed persons from Budva, Cetinje and the capital Podgorica, was organised with the support of the European police agency EUROPOL.

"By the order of the Special State Prosecutor's Office, police arrested the Mayor of Budva because there are grounds for suspicion that he committed the criminal offence of creating a criminal organisation and three criminal offences of unauthorized production, possession and distribution of narcotic drugs," Special State Prosecution spokesperson Vukas Radonjic told the media.

Bozovic is a high-ranking official in New Serbian Democracy, part of the ruling Democratic Front. Since September 2020 he has been a Democratic Front MP and a member of the parliamentary Security and Defence Committee members.

Bozovic was elected mayor of Budva after his Democratic Front coalition won a large majority at the local elections last October.

Since 2014, several officials from the coastal resort have been arrested for corruption and membership of criminal organisations. On September 2016, former Budva mayor Rajko Kuljaca and his deputy Dragan Marovic were sentenced to two years in prison for membership of a criminal organisation led by Svetozar Marovic, former president of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro.

In February 2020 former Budva mayor and Democratic Front official Marko Bato Carevic was accused by the leading anti-corruption watchdog MANS of illegal usurpation of state land.

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