By Bojana Jovanović and Stevan Dojčinović, CINS

A Montenegrin businessman charged last month in Serbia for his involvement in smuggling nearly two tons of cocaine. According to the indictment obtained by reporters for the Center for Investigative Reporting in Serbia (CINS) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), Rodoljub Radulović was a member of a criminal group headed by Darko Šarić.  Prosecutors say Radulović owned ships that were used to smuggle drugs from South America to Europe in food and other shipments including soybeans. Both Šarić and Radulović have since disappeared and Šarić is being sought for his role in the seizure of cocaine in a yacht off the Uruguayan coast in 2009. 

CINS and OCCRP published a series of articles on the businesses of Radulović. Among other things, OCCRP and CINS published confidential documents of the British Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA) stating that Radulović and Šarić, as leaders of a drug cartel, in mid-2009 planned to smuggle tons of cocaine on board ships carrying legitimate cargo, cement and sugar.

The indictment filed in Serbia in October charges Radulović with participating in the delivery of 1.8 tons of cocaine from South America to Europe, which was hidden on ships in legal loads of soybeans. Between January and March 2009, he organized the travel of the cargo ships "Verti" and "Golden" through his offshore company "Man Mare" and arranged transport of goods from Argentina to Spain as a camouflage for cocaine transport through that route, the indictment alleges. At one point, the Verti was searched by Greek police, but they found no drugs because they had already been offloaded. The document states that 1.8 tons of cocaine were successfully smuggled and sold in Europe.

Read more