State guards of the drug plantation

"I swear on my honor that I will only tell the truth about everything I am asked and that I will not keep silent about anything that is known to me," Inspector Dušan Mitić began his testimony before the court panel, and then exposed the scale of the biggest drug-corruption scandal ever hit Serbia. Namely, the BIA and VOA, members of the MUP, politicians in power, the judicial elite and the regime media are involved in it.

Back in 2018, Dušan Mitić was the first to point out to his colleagues that - according to his operational knowledge - Predrag Koluvija was a drug dealer. After the arrest in 2019, the tabloids and Koluvija first accused Mitic of trying to force the owner of Jovanjica to accuse members of the Serbian president's family for everything. According to "Vremen" information, it was even suggested to Mayor Slobodan Milenkovic to "let Mitić down the drain" in order to destroy the "Jovanjica" case. Since Milenkovic refused, both of them became victims of the manhunt that has been going on against them for years. Three and a half years later, Mitic found himself in the same room again with the defendants for the production of the skunk drug. The moment of confrontation in the courtroom has come.

TESTIMONY WHICH SPOILED THE MOOD OF THE ACCUSED

Before Inspector Mitić began testifying, the nine defendants sat together on the docks for the defendants in a glass box. They seemed in good spirits, giggling, fidgeting and tossing each other. As if they are not in the least concerned that the state is prosecuting them for organized crime.

The seating arrangement of the defendants was similar to the arrangement in the indictment. Closest to the door, on the first bench was the first accused Predrag Koluvija, otherwise the owner of the Jovanjica estate. Right behind him was his faithful shadow and godfather Sergej Mrđa, the second defendant who was also the manager of Jovanjica, and spent about two years on the run; he ended up in custody only at the beginning of February 2022, when, after public pressure, Bosnia and Herzegovina - where he was hiding - extradited him to Serbia. The prosecutor said earlier in the courtroom that in 2011, Mrđa was also arrested by the Hungarian police at the Roska border crossing on suspicion of smuggling skunk. The proceedings were initiated before the Court in Szeged, and prosecutor Drecun kept silent about the fact that Mrđa was legally acquitted of those charges.

During the hearing at which inspector Dušan Mitić testified, the accused Vule Bojović was right next to Koluvija. Let us remind you that Vulet's own brother is Radovan Bojović, a member of the MUP who is included in the second indictment, known as Jovanjica II. According to the data from the investigation, it was police officer Radovan Bojović who provided Koluvija with a forged police ID. By the way, the indictment states that in July 2016, Vule Bojović was arrested at the Bajakovo-Batrovci border crossing when entering Croatia, during which more than 33 kilograms of drugs were found on him. Until 2016, Vule Bojović was a professional soldier in the Serbian Army.

The other defendants looked at Koluvija with a smile and almost hope, nodding their heads at his every wit.

At the same moment when the witness entered, Koluvija came out of the glass box and went into the courtroom to take notes more easily. The others on the dock for the next hours looked at the back of the witness through the glass. Prosecutor Saša Drecun was sitting a few meters away from Koluvia, and across from them were the defense lawyers. Between all of them, Dušan Mitić, the head of the anti-drug operation, stood with his eyes fixed on the judge in front of him.

TIME OF TRUTH

"It was not pleasant for us to catch the state in crime", these were the first words of inspector Mitić addressed to the judge in connection with the case of Jovanjic. At that moment there was silence in the courtroom. The defendants were no longer smiling or looking at Koluvija - they were staring at Inspector Mitić's back, leaning in the direction of the lectern as if they wanted to hear his every word as best as possible.

That was just the beginning. Soon there was a flood of words from the inspector who, because he did his job and fought against drug dealers, was persecuted and criminalized along with his colleagues and family members for almost four years. During all that time, Mitić and his police chief, Slobodan Milenkovic, were in danger of being liquidated because they touched the hornet's nest woven by drug dealers, politicians and secret agents. For almost four years, while the top of the state and the regime media led a brutally cruel campaign against Mitić and Milenkovic, they remained silent.

Namely, nothing is easier than attacking a policeman, because according to the law, if a policeman speaks publicly, even a word in his own defense, without obtaining the approval of the Minister of Internal Affairs, (who in this case also led a campaign against them), immediate dismissal follows. And so Inspector Mitić remained silent while they attacked him, and when he spoke from the courtroom, everyone else fell silent. At least for a while, as if both the attackers and the defendants were still interested in hearing the truth for once.

Mitic's sentences continued to echo. In this issue, "Vreme" publishes the most interesting parts of the testimony, while in one of the following issues, a transcript of everything that was said in the courtroom at that hearing will be available to the readers, if the High Court responds to the request that the minutes be delivered to us.

"In 2018, I received information about Jovanjica from the operational liaison, and I told Chief Milenkovic about it. We knew about it for a year... The plan was to carry out the arrest due to the Jovanjica case at the end of the year or at the beginning of 2020, at a time when the harvesting of drug plants would be in full swing... The operational information I received had three essential elements and all three have, through investigation, proven to be correct. Namely, the information read: 'Predrag Koluvija is engaged in the production of first-class skank, he has strong contacts at the top of the state and from those contacts he draws strong security protection.' (...). We did not officially disclose all of this information and the preparation of the action, because we had reason to keep it secret. Although the plan was to carry out the arrest in a few months, something unplanned happened that day, November 13, 2019."

Let us remind you that on the Belgrade-Niš highway on November 13, 2019, Predrag Koluvija and his driver Miloš Tofilović were in an Audi that had blinkers and an Orthodox cross with the mark of the Serbian Church on the body; they drove arrogantly and overtook illegally. They were stopped by a civilian car and Koluvija came face to face with the head of the Belgrade Department for the fight against drugs, Slobodan Milenkovic, and three other inspectors. He was soon arrested, and the police flooded the green fields of marijuana and skunk near Stara Pazova. According to the indictment, Koluvija had a forged police badge with him, which he showed to Chief Milenkovic.

Those allegations from the indictment were also confirmed by inspector Mitić.

"That day, Chief Milenkovic called me and said: 'Mitić, I stopped the one... the one who has that facility, you know...' We spoke in codes, we were careful while talking over the open connection. And Milenkovic then interrupted and said: 'Let's go with the operation to the end.' It was an ad hoc decision and such decisions are not uncommon in our business. Most of our action is ad hoc, that is, when you have the opportunity to catch a drug dealer or break a chain."

THE PROSECUTOR DID NOT ALLOW THE MARIJUANA TO BE CUT

Inspector Dušan Mitić also spoke about what it was like to enter Jovanjica and what they found there.

"After the meeting on the highway between chiefs Milenkovic and Koluvija, I entered Jovanjica a little later with operatives and the Special Operations Department (OPA). I had previously observed the building, because I knew that the security was armed. I was the first to tell the security guards to put down their weapons. However, they were quite relaxed, even though there were special forces in front of them with phantoms, they were always referring to the BIA and the Army... My operational liaison told me in 2018 that according to her knowledge, marijuana has been underground since 2017 , in the basements of Jovanjica. However, when we entered the estate, together with the prosecutor from Sremska Mitrovica, we saw that marijuana was spread over the entire territory of the estate. It's a huge property, it took me about 40 minutes to go around it. It was a marijuana factory. Coluvia told me later that he was just planning to buy the property next to it, to expand... I am not an expert, nor an agronomist, but as an inspector who fights against drugs it was clear to me what it was about, when I saw the flowers of the plants I knew that it's marijuana. And I immediately asked for an official expert opinion to be done."

Then Mitić said that the obstructions started immediately, from the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime, no less.

"It is a precedent that the cutting of plants was not started immediately, on the same day. We waited even seven days. It is a negative curiosity, which I have never encountered before during my work. It's a form of pressure. On the second day, Chief Milenkovic sent a letter to TOK and asked for a statement regarding the cutting of plants. That is, he asked them: 'Why doesn't the Prosecutor's Office order that the cannabis stems be cut?' They didn't answer him, even Milenkovic told me that the chief prosecutor for organized crime told him: 'Well, we're not going to harm the man.'"

Inspectors guarded the property day and night. According to Mitić, they had information that Jovanjica and all the evidence on it would be destroyed. And that this is exactly the reason why he is procrastinating with the cutting of cannabis stems. The inspectors were especially worried about the drones that flew over the property non-stop.

By the way, Mitić says that Koluvija kept saying that it was industrial hemp, and then he admitted to some marijuana.

"First he said it was industrial hemp. Then he said that every thousandth plant is marijuana. And then I told him: 'I don't have time for you.'"

Let us recall that Predrag Koluvija, co-owner of the Jovanjica company, presented himself in public as a pious and successful businessman, producer of organic food and Indian hemp. Koluvija received a license to grow industrial hemp six months before his arrest, and the license was intended for export to companies operating in North Macedonia and Slovenia - countries where the use of cannabis, i.e. marijuana for medical purposes, is allowed.

The investigation established that since 2016, marijuana has actually been produced on Jovanjica: in appearance, it is similar to industrial hemp, but with a much higher proportion of THC, which classifies it as a narcotic drug. Data from the indictment indicate that Predrag Koluvija and some of his associates have been involved in the drug business for ten years and "export" drugs throughout the region, including to the countries of the European Union.

HE PRETIES, EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY!

From the day they entered the Jovanjica property until today, the inspectors of the Fourth Department suffered obstruction from the highest state level. Mitić says that he has seen how experienced police officers distort from fear and pressure: "They threaten our work, our lives, try to compromise and criminalize us. It's been that way since day one."

And on the first day, while only prosecutors and police officers knew about the entry to Jovanjica, Aleksandar Tošić, the head of the BIA from Zvezdara, appeared on the property.

"I legitimized Tošić, his hand was shaking as he showed me the BIA badge. He begged me not to make anything about Jovanjica public. He said that he was being sent by his manager, Mirko Škero. He called Šker on Viber, then Chief Milenkovic also spoke with him, who asked him from the BIA, 'What is it about?' Then Škero called Bratislava Gašić and said that he was working on his orders and that at his request he sent Tošić to Jovanjica... I purposely escorted Tošić out of Jovanjica by taking him past Koluvia. I wanted them to see each other and see their reaction. Both were trembling. Tošić stopped, put his hand on Koluvia's shoulder, it seemed as if he was going to hug him, and told him: 'Predrazje - everything will be fine.'"

A little later, the police officer Milan Kendija came to the property.

"He wanted to enter Jovanjica, he introduced himself as a police colonel, he was angry and unpleasant towards the policemen who tried to legitimize him. He told us that he was Koluvia's cousin," Mitic testified.

COLUVIA LIKES TO TALK

Inspector Mitić described Koluvija as a condescending swindler who persistently asked to talk to the inspectors in order to prove to them who was behind him, but also to find out on whose orders the policemen came to Jovanjica.

"I think Koluvia was in awe because for the first time he met with non-corrupt members of the security sector. He tried to impress us with his phone contacts and messages with politicians, controversial businessmen, BIA director Bratislav Gašić, BIA bosses Mirko Šker, Tošić, general and VOA director Zoran Stojković... He corresponded non-stop with them on WhatsApp and Viber applications. It was such a relaxed communication that even the opposition was gossiped about. I'm not saying this to politicize the case, but I'm talking about what I saw. If I wanted to politicize, I would name every politician that Koluvia claimed to communicate with."

During the testimony, the inspector mentioned several times that the only affair related to Jovanjica was an attempt to turn the case into an affair.



"Predrag Koluvija and then BIA director Bratislav Gašić, who is now the Minister of Police, corresponded via WhatsApp. Gašić showed that he is aware that Koluvija is a donor to the Agency. And from the last messages it was clear that Gašić knew what was happening on Jovanjica. While Koluvia was showing me that communication, he kept saying: 'Do you believe me now?'"

However, Koluvia was silent, according to the inspector, when asked about the Army.

"I was interested in who 'Sale' was, the mysterious man from the Military Intelligence Agency. It wasn't until two days later that I discovered that it was Saša Vujisić. By the way, Vujisić called the mayor Slobodan Milenkovic to meet at the stadium and as the mayor told me then he told him: 'Jovanjica will not see the light of day. We're going to knock down the THC analysis. It is a state project that the BIA and the Army are working on. "Milenković then answered him: 'We will do according to the law, and you do as you want.'"

SAMI, LEFT BY EVERYONE

The lives of the inspectors who discovered Jovanjica and their relatives turned into hell. And Dušan Mitić testified about this: "I have endured everything until now. And kept silent. Now, here, is the only place where I can say what I have.”

They had an inkling that lightning and thunder would attack the inspectors only a day after entering Jovanjica, when the inspectors saw that prosecutor Saša Drecun was also working against his own case, a few hours after he was assigned to work.

"My colleague Miloš Jurišević called me on the phone and told me that prosecutor Drecun is putting pressure on him to make Koluvija the second defendant. The colleague was very upset, and Drecun also had contact with Ljubomir Petrović (also an inspector of the IV department), but we remained with the fact that Koluvija was the prime suspect. "Drecun is not the only one who tried it, Milenko Munizaba, then head of the UKP of the Belgrade Police, also asked for it," Mitić said.

The defendants were speechless at these words, they just looked at each other. In the air, the silence between them seemed to echo: "What is going on!" A moment later, everyone was looking at prosecutor Saša Drecun. He was sitting, his shoulders tense and his elbows resting on the table with all his might. With the fingers of one hand, it was as if he was trying to tear off the cuticle of the other hand. However, prosecutor Drecun, with pursed lips and an unmoving gaze, did not look at his nervous fingers, but directly at inspector Mitić. That didn't stop the inspector from continuing his testimony, to such vengeful looks as if he had been used to it during arrests for years:

"Imagine, the deputy prosecutor Saša Drecun discussed the Jovanjica case with his godfather, who is in a high position in the BIA, in front of Slobodan Milenkovic. He chatted casually, very freely speaking, with his godfather who also works at the BIA. We were amazed at how unprofessional the prosecutor's behavior was. Milenkovic told me: 'We are alone in this case.'"

Later, during the hearing, prosecutor Dretsun questioned the inspector as if he was actually Koluvia's defense attorney. He almost hissed while trying to find the inspector's mistake in his actions during the search on Jovanjica. At one point, the prosecutor asked the police officer: "Did you and I cooperate before?" Did you come to my place? Were you satisfied with my work?"

Mitić answered briefly: "Since Jovanjica, I have never come to your place again."

The public could have sensed that prosecutor Drecun was part of the state apparatus directed against the inspector of the Fourth Department back in the fall. Namely, against the three inspectors who participated in the arrest of Koluvija, proceedings were initiated before the High Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade. That obscure procedure, in which the inspectors are accused of trying to extort 13 thousand dinars, is led by Drecun's former assistant. And from the same prosecutor's office, Drecun was referred to TOK for help a few days before the exposure of Jovanjica.

By the way, Drecun's associate quickly progressed and with the arrival of Nenad Stefanović as head of the Higher Prosecutor's Office, she became the deputy for corruption. To clarify, it was precisely the prosecutor of VJT in Belgrade who infamously "famously" persecuted the chief Slobodan Milenkovic after a manhunt was conducted against him in the regime media. According to the stunned lawyers, prosecutor Drecun was at the celebration of the new year 2023 organized by VJT in the company of the organizer of the festivities, prosecutor Stefanović, Koluvija's defense attorney Vladimir Đukanović and members of the BIA.

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHO YOU HAVE ARRESTED, WE WILL ALL BE KILLED"

Jovanjica is a synergy of crime, state structures, security services, with these words inspector Dušan Mitić described the case: "Ask inspector Petrović what the defendant Sergej Mrđa told him after the police entered Jovanjica - 'you don't know who you arrested, we will all be killed. '.”

The compromising of Chief Milenkovic and Inspector Mitić began even before the indictment was filed. "We had a polygraph a month after Jovanjica. It was rumored in the public that we went to the polygraph because of a case in Kursulina Street in Vračar, and the questions on the polygraph did not relate to that case, but to Jovanjica. The second polygraph we went to was performed by Dejan Kojić, the brother of Ivica Kojić, the head of the president's cabinet. Again questions for Jovanjica. We passed that one too", Mitic said.

The strongest pressure on the inspectors began in the fall of 2021, when Koluvija was released from the detention cell.

"Koluvia's release from detention was just at the moment when we received information that a member of the BIA wanted to talk about why he was at Jovanjica. Then Vladimir Đukanović (Koluvia's lawyer and SNS official, ed.) had a show," Mitić says.

We remind you that Đukanović conducted an interview with Koluvija for TV Objektiv, immediately after Koluvija's release from custody in 2021. Then the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, addressed the nation from Dubai, who said:

"Colluvia didn't kill anyone, he didn't have 10 tons of cocaine or something like that, but, as far as I understand, a ton of marijuana, as much as half the environment, the Germans and others legalized it. Which he also denies ever having. But to spend two years in custody for something like that, obviously someone was afraid of what might be heard. We will see who these people are."

Inspector Dušan Mitić says that then a fierce public and secret hunt for him and Chief Milenkovic begins:

"Our new investigation was agreed upon in that environment of the state machinery. I think that the deputy prosecutor Drecun definitely landed at that time, he sent us greetings and messages saying 'hold on' and 'endure', but he never spoke up. Here I endured everything and I am here. Our third polygraph examination was arranged at a meeting attended by Belgrade police chief Veselin Milić, then head of the Special Investigation Methods Service Tomislav Radovanović and UKP chief Ninoslav Cmolić. They were seeing the people who took the polygraphs on us, so we have nothing to expect from them and we did not want to go to such a polygraph in such an environment of the state machinery that was launched against us. That's why we refused the third polygraph examination."

The inspectors also learned that their liquidation had been ordered. According to Mitić, in all that chaos, while everyone was shouting against them, and they had to keep quiet in order not to get fired, they were lucky enough to meet lawyer Zdenko Tomanović.

"Threats against us and our vulnerability were so great that through close friends we reached a man of integrity, a very honorable man and a top lawyer, Zdenko Tomanovic, and since then our position in the public has changed and the public, for the first time, learned something positive about us .”



Mitić also says that Belgrade Police Chief Milić has been avoiding meeting with Inspector Slobodan Milenkovic since 2021. Milenković asked Milić to make a statement about the security assessment of the police inspectors who worked on the Jovanjica case, but he did not do so. After that, Milenkovic asked for the then Minister of Police Aleksandar Vulin to comment on the security assessment, but he did not speak up either.
"There was also pressure on my family members directly from Bratislava Gašić. Since then, I have not parted with the gun. I used to carry it only when I go to work, now I always carry a gun and two frames with me, even when I take my child to the park. They wanted to kill us. I was waiting for a security assessment for Milenkovic and me as Godot. And then that assessment was declared an official secret", says Mitić.

Soon, the review of the entire work and all contacts and associates of the inspector began: "Working groups were created, which have been examining the work of the IV Department for 30 months, with an emphasis on the work of Chief Milenkovic and my work. If the investigation of Koluvija had been carried out as much, I guess it would have been found out from which money he has all that he has."

According to inspector Mitić, the information that the authorities requested from the inspectors of the IV department also reached the criminals.

"They asked me for a list of collaborators. So they asked me for a notebook in which my co-workers were written so that they could see it for at least two minutes. I asked them: 'Do you want to take a picture?' And then, as the head of the operation, I found out from my colleagues that they actually asked me for a list of sources because the criminal Darko Elez was interested in that list."

The pressures continue. And until the day of Mitic's testimony.

"Bratislav Gašić is vitally interested in replacing Milenkovic," says Mitić.



He also testified about who are all the bearers of ominous messages for the state machinery that works for them: "Attorney Zora Dobričanin Nikodinović, when she became the representative of Predrag Koluvija, told Milenkovic that she was being sent by the top of the state. Dobričanin Nikodinović represented Koluvia from the time of her arrest until February 2022. And now he plays mediator and calls Milenkovic to convey messages on behalf of Marko Kričko (a unit for the security of certain persons and objects of the MUP) and tells him - accept the position of coordinator that is offered to you, it is important that you are alive and that you have no proceedings and you will be fine .”

THE PERSECUTION OF THE INSPECTOR CONTINUES

Immediately after Dušan Mitić's testimony, almost all the defendants in the Jovanjic case, their lawyers and family members launched a new attack on inspectors Milenkovic and Mitić on social networks. Investigative journalists following the case, as well as members of the opposition who are currently debating the dismissal of Police Minister Bratislava Gašić in the National Assembly, went through the same thing. And behind the parliamentary microphone, an insult that can be interpreted as a threat to the inspector - since it is incomprehensible that the minister is legally ignorant to that extent - was uttered by Gašić, right after Mitic's testimony: "Today, people are coming to testify who, in order to defend their crime, have the right to lie in court."

By the way, Dušan Mitić testified, and a witness must not lie. In the case of Jovanjic, the defendant is Predrag Koluvija and others - only they have the right to lie in their defense. In the Assembly, Gašić also said something in his defense.

"I responsibly claim that there is only one message with Predrag Koluvija from October, six months before his arrest, and that is 'Congratulations on BIA Day' and 'Thank you, we will not celebrate this year,'" added Gašić.

Was the minister lying in his defense or was he confused? Namely, Koluvija was arrested in November 2019, so it is unclear how Gašić heard from him "six months earlier, in October", as he stated. BIA Day was also celebrated in 2019, but not in 2020 due to the corona epidemic, when Koluvia was in custody. And when it comes to Koluvija and custody, after the testimony of Mitic and Gašić's attack on the policeman in the Parliament, on the same day, by court decision, Koluvija was removed from custody and is now defending himself from freedom.