Former police chief interviewed ahead of arrest

Former police chief interviewed ahead of arrest

In an interview with Belgrade’s Danas daily just a day before he was detained, Gvozdenović said the campaign to identify and charge those responsible for the lucrative criminal activity turned into a farce, political showdowns and paybacks, alleging that all the while true tycoons and criminals remained at large.

Gvozdenović told the daily that he had reliable information UBPOK, MUP’s organized crime operative department, was preparing to arrest him, and added he feared for his life.

“It is clear I have absolutely nothing to do with organized cigarette smuggling, and this is bound to come out. However, Operation Net is an excellent opportunity to catch small fish, including those who have nothing to do with organized crime, but have nonetheless found themselves in the way of state and police structures, which is where I have stood since the mid 1990’s,” Gvozdenović said.

“UBPOK and state security [BIA] intend to fit me in the ‘one businessman, one customs official, one police chief’ pattern. But, it is impossible to place me in there, since I had nothing to do with that business, I never received any official information about it, nor did I ever prevent anyone from fighting smuggling. These things are anyway done in an organized manner and with support from the top, who needs a local police chief,” Gvozdenović added.

“I cannot understand that they are attempting to tie me to organized crime. I was the first in Serbia to bring up the issue of mafia within the state structures, back in 1996, but I was a lonely voice,” he said.

Gvozdenović also accused the current MUP and BIA leaderships of employing Milošević-era personnel, and alleged it was precisely those that were attempting to charge him with criminal activity he vehemently denied.

Gvozdenović was arrested along with Petar Milenković, adviser to former federal customs head Mihalj Kertes, and Siniša Stojčić, brother of former Public Security Service Chief Radovan Stojćić Badža, who was shot and killed in a Belgrade restaurant in 1997.

Police regard former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević’s son Marko Milošević, widow Mirjana Marković, and businessman Stanko Subotić Cane as ringleaders of the other cigarette smuggling groups, investigated and charged as part of Operation Net 1.