The case of Jovanjica: The political background of dirty badges

The series "Jovanjica" received a continuation last week. It was reported that the agents of the BIA (Security Information Agency), VOA (Military Intelligence Agency) and VBA (Military Security Agency) were arrested on suspicion of being part of an organized criminal group that grew marijuana on the plantations of the agricultural estate Jovanjica. Therefore, those who are supposed to prevent such businesses are involved in their organization, are involved in the production and distribution of "weed" and other products obtained from it.

This case, which has been going on since the end of last year, managed to find its place in the public despite the corona epidemic and all its consequences, as well as the disorganized management of the epidemic and the inevitable story about the necessity of solving the "Kosovo problem". Although the "technical government" avoided making a statement about the latest arrest related to the Jovanjica affair, and the heads of the Serbian Army, MUP and BIA remained silent, two things are clear. The first - a group of agents is directly involved in organized crime, and the second - "something is brewing" in the background of everything. That is why it seems that the claims of the opposition that this affair is connected with the top of the Serbian government are not incorrect.

Because, if it is not connected - as the authorities announced months ago - then the problem is even more difficult. Namely, what is the state of the Serbian security services when those who lead them have no idea what jobs they are engaged in by people whose job it is to deal with the security of the entire country? And who actually does it and does anyone do it?

A brief history

The story of Jovanjica - about which "Vreme" wrote extensively in the issues of December 2019 and January and February 2020 - appeared "out of nowhere" after the story "leaked" to the public that on a widely famous agricultural farm near Stara Pazova ( forty kilometers from Belgrade), entrepreneur Predrag Koluvija grows marijuana instead of organic vegetables.

Thanks to journalists from BIRN and Insider, it was learned that Koluvija is close to certain people from the Serbian Orthodox Church, ministers in the Government of Serbia and the ruling Serbian Progressive Party. That's not all: at the time of his arrest, Koluvija had identification from the MUP of Serbia, and in that operation by the Belgrade police's Narcotics Department, which was led by Slobodan Milenković, a huge amount of marijuana was seized. Later it was found out that Koluvija was the suspect and that the state was helping the production of the Jovanjica estate with loans, which was said to bring quality to Serbian agriculture.

Koluvija and his closest associates have been in custody for months, and at the beginning of June 2020, the indictment charging them with illegal production and distribution of drugs was confirmed. Current arrests after the confirmation of the indictment brought a "new quality" to the whole story and confirm the dimension of the state's involvement in criminal affairs.

In media reports after the arrest of a group of policemen and agents, a connection was sought between those persons and those who today have responsibility in the security services or with the top of the state. The names and functions of the arrested do not indicate that they are important to the Serbian security community, but it is still an open question whether those who fell were the only ones who participated in it or were sacrificed as "small fish" in order not to reach the biggest players in the to the whole business.

And when it comes to big players, the main story was told publicly last year by the then MP Miroslav Aleksić from Trstenik, revealing that, according to his knowledge, Koluvi called Andrej Vučić at the time of his arrest. Because of this statement, he is now being sued by Andrej Vučić, and his brother Aleksandar and other members of the SNS are using it to show that the attacks on the Serbian president have no limits.

Their argument is as follows: why would anyone arrest Colluvia if he himself is involved in crime? We hear a similar thing today when talking about the data on deaths and infections from the corona virus - why would we hide the data when we originally created a system that was supposed to give us the most accurate statistics? However, in both cases, it seems, the same thing is happening: neither Koluvija, who was considered a great benefactor of the Serbian Orthodox Church and a respected entrepreneur, should have fallen, nor should the public have found out the real information about the consequences of the epidemic in Serbia.

Different paths and zones of interest

When it comes to the case of Jovanjic, the latest events, the release of the agents and the policeman who probably "after work" went to Koluvija to do some more daily wages, and the public disclosure of their names - which is an unprecedented event - speaks more about the absence of a system than on the strategic fight against drug dealers. And to all this should be added the fact that in recent months the Minister of the Interior, Nebojša Stefanovića, has rarely appeared in public, that is, he has not personally announced the news of the new arrests, but rather a statement from the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime.

Formally, it should be praised and said - finally the prosecutors woke up, here is the brave prosecutor Saša Drecun, who took matters into his own hands and started doing his job, enough was enough of the arbitrariness of the Minister of Police, who bought a string where it was only necessary to report on what he did at the behest of the prosecutor. But it is difficult to say, given that Saša Drecun is linked to Andrej Vučić as the prosecutor who led the proceedings against the gendarmes accused of beating Andrej Vučić and Predrag Mali at the Pride Parade in 2014. He also appeared in the campaign against the former ombudsman Saša Janković when he was to be accused of being involved in the death of a college colleague more than two decades ago.

All this moves this affair from the criminal to the political level and into the area of ​​intra-party confrontations between Nebojsa Stefanović and Andrej Vučić over supremacy in the SNS itself, so these latest events could be read as taking the case out of the hands of Stefanović and transferring it to the hands of Andrej Vučić. whom Aleksić mentioned as Koluvia's protector.

In the coming months, certain assumptions could be quickly demonstrated if the judiciary is not completely blocked due to the corona epidemic. When the case before the court starts, some details that are currently in the domain of assumptions may emerge, and the further development of prosecutor Drecun's career, and the political future of Nebojsa Stefanović, a man who was long considered the closest associate of Aleksandar Vučić, and then it became clear that their paths and areas of interest had somehow diverged.

Some lessons remain for the general public: Inspector Milenkovic had to resign early because he may not have understood what he was getting into; the opposition representatives will have to face the real power of those they pointed to; the minister of police and a high-ranking official of the ruling party was faced with a choice whether to join the opposition or the concrete league of his parent party; Citizens should be careful when they hear that some very young man has done some great work in a short time, which is praised by ministers and influential people from politics, because maybe it is not his job.

The central lesson is what everyone knows from movies and series. It is about the fact that there is no organized crime - and the production and distribution of drugs is one of the strongest branches of the underground - without the support of the people who lead the country. At different levels.

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