Who is who and what is what in the biggest judicial and political scandal in Serbia

JOHNICE

photo: муп

The name of the company and estate in the territory of Stara Pazova, a few tens of kilometers from Belgrade. The company was named in 2014 after the port of Jovanjica, which provides access to Mount Athos, with the blessing of the monks from Hilandar.

The agricultural property near Stara Pazova was registered for the production of organic vegetables and fruits. For years, the property was visited by ruling politicians. High-ranking official of the Serbian Progressive Party, Zoran Babić, promoted products from Jovanjica. The director of the Anti-Corruption Agency, Dragan Sikimić, also visited the property near Stara Pazova. At the organic food seminars, along with Koluvija, there was inevitably a member of the Main and Executive Board of SNS Dragomir Petronijević. They also held business seminars and courses on agriculture for police officers. However, in November 2019, during an arrest and search operation, the police found on that property - as stated in the indictment - exclusively marijuana plants, i.e. skunk, as well as about 600 kilograms of that drug ready for sale.

About thirty workers worked on the farm, whose CVs were checked by the BIA. According to the indictment, a cannabis plantation was developed in the greenhouses on Jovanjica in nine hangars, while an underground city flourished beneath them. Basically, ten state-of-the-art skunk laboratories and two dryers were discovered in the underground of Jovanjica. Only a few workers dressed in special suits with gloves and surgical masks could enter those rooms.

During the search, jammers for communication with mobile phones, weapons and rifles for taking down drones were found on the property.

PREDRAG COLLUVIA, the first accused as the leader of the organized crime group in the case "Jovanjica"

Photo: Fonet

Predrag Koluvija, co-owner of the Jovanjica company, presented himself in public as a pious, successful businessman - a 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 marijuana was actually produced on Jovanjica since 2016: it looks 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.

Predrag Koluvija (41) was born in Germany. His family members were supporters of the Chetnik Duke Popo Đujić and are family friends with the founder of the Serbian Radical Party, Vojislav Šešelja. Before arriving in Serbia, at the beginning of 2000, Coluvija was convicted in his native country as a multiple fraudster, and in Italy for illegal possession of weapons. Before the arrest due to the case of "Jovanjic" against Koluvija, proceedings were initiated in Serbia before the High Court in Novi Sad due to kiwi smuggling.

On the Belgrade-Nis 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. A civilian car stopped them and Koluvija came face to face with the head of the Belgrade Department for the fight against drugs, Slobodan Milenkovic, and three other inspectors. The fake police badge he had on him didn't help either. He was soon arrested, and the police flooded the green fields of marijuana near Stara Pazova.

SLOBODAN MILENKOVIĆ, head of the Department for the fight against drugs of the Belgrade police

photo: tanjug / sava radovanović

Inspector Slobodan Milenković, head of the Fourth Department of the Belgrade Police, exposed the biggest drug-corruption-affair in the country and arrested the owner of the estate Jovanjic Predrag Koluvija.

He was elected to the position of head of that Department in 2016, and since then he and his team of inspectors have recorded some of the best results in the history of the Belgrade police. He has been awarded several times for his merits in his work, and in 2018 he received the medal awarded to him by the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, for Vidovdan.

From the moment he arrested Koluvija, Milenković has been exposed to constant work pressures and obstructions from his superiors for two and a half years. He was interrogated several times about his work and for numerous cases in the Department of Internal Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia, and on two occasions he was polygraphed in connection with the "Jovanjica" case. In January 2020, he addressed the public and said that political speculations by the opposition that Koluvi called the brother of the President of the State, Andrej Vučić, during the arrest are not correct. Also, that he, as a signatory of the criminal report for the "Jovanjica" case, claims that the president and his family have nothing to do with that case.

Photo: Strahinja Aćimović / Tanjug

However, Slobodan Milenkovic could not avoid being lynched by the media on several occasions precisely because of the "Jovanjica" case. Tabloids even published photos of his associates taken while he was meeting them. Those photos, which, as is speculated, were supplied to the tabloids by the BIA or the MUP while they were following the police chief, put the lives of Milenkovic and his associates at risk.

In recent weeks, the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office has been trying to find out the names of the associates, but also everything about the way Chief Milenkovic worked with them, through official means. On the other hand, the MUP and the Prosecutor's Office never acted on the information that was officially reported to the police in October 2021 that certain people from the top of the security services were considering both the criminalization and then the liquidation of Chief Milenkovic and Inspector Dusan Mitić.

On the occasion of the media attacks, Mayor Milenkovic asked to address the public on several occasions. He is not allowed.

photo: sava radovanović / tanjug

DUŠAN MITIC, CHIEF OF OPERATIONS

As the head of operations of the Department for the fight against drugs, Mitić was the first to point out to his colleagues that Predrag Koluvija was recorded in the white book of the police as a drug dealer, which was followed by a search of Jovanjic's property. Tabloids and Koluvija first accused Mitić of trying to force the owner of Jovanjica to accuse members of the Serbian president's family for everything. Nacenik Milenkovic was even suggested to "let Mitić down the drain" in order to destroy the object "Jovanjica". Since Milenkovic refused, both of them became victims of the manhunt that has been going on against them for two and a half years, as well as against the entire city Department for the fight against drugs.

BORKA JOVANOVIC, PROSECUTOR FROM SREMSK MITROVICA

The first came, due to territorial jurisdiction, to the Jovanjica estate and ordered a search of the estate. Also the arrest of Predrag Koluvija.

Sasa Drecunphoto:N1

SAŠA DRECUN, PROSECUTOR FOR THE CASE "JOHNICE"

He transferred from the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office to the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime a few days before the police action on Jovanjica was carried out. He filed two indictments based on the investigation of the case. It is not uncommon, although incomparably less compared to police inspectors, to be exposed to media lynching and name-calling - both by the accused and by their defenders, who claim that Jovanjica was not growing drugs but industrial hemp.

In the previous period, compromising correspondence between Drecun and criminals was also delivered to the media via secret emails, which were found to have been staged with the aim of publicly discrediting the prosecutor.

Prosecutor Drecun ordered three independent expert reports for the "Jovanjica" case, and all three, according to the court documents, showed that the plants had a high percentage of THC and that skunk, which is a stronger intoxicant than marijuana, was produced on the estate. Despite all the attacks and obstructions of the trial, Drecun has so far not publicly announced anything about "Jovanjica".

MLADEN NENADIĆ, CHIEF OF THE PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE FOR ORGANIZED CRIME

Photo: Ministry of Justice

He is the head of the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and during his mandate, due to the "Jovanjica" case, two indictments were filed against members of an organized criminal group. However, financial and economic crimes related to that case were never investigated. Money flows, as well as drug routes from Jovanjica, seem to be of no interest at all to the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime - the defendants were never asked questions related to that sphere of crime.

INDICTMENT "JOHNNY ONE"

The indictment, which charges nine people, focuses on the unauthorized production of narcotic drugs on the Jovanjica property, where, according to the prosecution, 1,6 tons of marijuana were found. Predrag Koluvija is the first accused as the leader of an organized criminal group, and Sergej Mrđa, Vladan Živojinović, Branislav Miljević, Zdravko Milošević, Stevan Holić, Vule Bojović, Petar Živanović, Petar Hricaj and Boban Jovanović are also accused. The trial began on October 7, 2020.

Ms. Green". Records on the amount of skunk and records of deliveries.

"MRS. GREEN"

Rokovnik under this name was found hidden in the basement of Jovanjica. He hid the biggest secrets of Predrag Koluvija and his associates.

The magazine has a green cover, on which is written MPC.GPNH. Records in it have been kept since May 14, 2016. The Prosecution states that the diary contains data on the time, quantity and type of skunk that was produced in Jovanjica under the names: Red Dragon, Silver Skunk, CIA BIA, Pain Killer, Gorilla, Sugar Pop.

SERGEJ MRĐA, SECOND DEFENDANT

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It is about the godfather Predrag Koluvija and the manager of the estate. Mrđa was the first to escape from Jovanjica and was on an international wanted list. He ended up in custody at the beginning of February 2022 when, after public pressure, Bosnia and Herzegovina - where he was hiding - extradited him to Serbia.

It was not the first time that Sergej Mrdja was searched for. Because of skunk smuggling, he was once the first to fall into the hands of the police. Admittedly, Hungarian. It was in 2011 at the Roska border crossing. Mrđa and another associate were arrested while trying to import thirty kilograms of skunk into Hungary. The proceedings were initiated before the Court in Szeged, but after leaving Hungarian detention, all traces of Koluvia's "right hand" were lost. The quality of skank, which the neighborhood police had never encountered before and which was incomparably different from the previous "ganja" that usually arrived from Albania, made them suspect that drugs of such quality were produced in Serbia, where the smugglers were from.

Soon, on the territory of Belgrade, the international action "Zepelin" followed, in which the American DEA also participated.

SALE "ZEPPELIN" AND THE GODFATHER OF LIES

Zepelin action Vladan Lazovic accused of drugs. Koluvia's godfather. photo: screen

During the search, the police found a photocopy of the passport of his godfather Vladan Lazović Laza in Predrag Koluvija's desk, as well as the indictment that sent the godfather Laza to prison. It is about the "Zepelin" police operation, when in May 2012 the police arrested five people for the production and distribution of skunk. On Mirijevska boulevard, the 54-year-old Koluvia's best man, Vladan Lazović, who was identified as the leader of the group, also fell into the hands of the inspector.

In the "Zepelin" operation, 270 kilograms of skunk packaged for sale and 200 kilograms of raw marijuana, the value of which was around one and a half million euros, were seized. A large amount of weapons and explosives, as well as 200 euros, were also found.

According to the police officials at the time, in an apparently abandoned house guarded by dangerous dogs, there was a laboratory equipped with expensive and sophisticated equipment, and an organized criminal group sold the drug for five to seven thousand euros per kilogram and it was intended for the Serbian and European markets. .

INDICTMENT "JOVANJICA TWO"

Indictment Jovanjica 2.

The trial for the "Jovanjica dva" case has not started for more than a year due to various obstructions. Even the preparatory hearings have not been held yet.

Let us remind you that at the beginning of July 2020, the arrests for the "Jovanjica" case continued. The internal control department of the police carried out most of the action and arrested several members of the BIA and MUP, while a warrant was issued for one VOA officer. After media raids on the prosecutor leading the case and the police officers who exposed Jovanjica, the indictment of "Jovanjica two" was still confirmed in court, but only after the European Parliament spoke out and drew the attention of the Serbian authorities to follow the case.

The indictment for "Jovanjica dva" accuses individuals from the security services of covering up the drug production operation and of being Koluvia's "protection ring". The defendants were: as the leader of an organized criminal group Predrag Koluvija, member of the BIA Aleksandar Tošić, inspector of the MUP for the suppression of economic crime in the Belgrade police Radovan Bojović, then member of the BIA Branislav Radosavljević, member of the MUP from the Unit for Securing Objects and Persons Milan Kendija, inspector of the Department for Combat against corruption Zoran Baštovanović, officer of the Military Intelligence Agency Saša Vujisić (on the run), and the indictment also charges civilians Miloš Tofilović and Slaviša Milinković.

MILOS TOFILOVIC, COLLUVIA'S BODYGUARD AND DRIVER

Tofilovic Milos driver

Miloš Tofilović (47) from Čajetina was arrested at the beginning of February 2021 in a joint operation by the US DEA agency, Serbian and Bulgarian police for heroin smuggling, and on August 12 of the same year he was released from custody and was allowed to defend himself.

Tofilović became known to the public after Koluvia's arrest, as he was his driver on the way to Macedonia. However, Miloš Tofilović was handcuffed only in July 2020. He was arrested at the same time as members of the BIA and the police, who were suspected of being Koluvija's ring of protection. Along with Tofilović, his cousin Milan Kendija, a police officer responsible for the security of officials, who employed Tofilović as a bodyguard and driver for Predrag Koluvija in July 2019, also ended up in prison.

After the two months that Tofilović spent behind bars, High Court judge Milan Dilparić assessed that there is no danger that he, as one of the defendants for growing marijuana in the "Jovanjic" case, will repeat the crime and released him from custody on September 17, 2020. year. Nevertheless, Tofilović was arrested again a few months later, albeit not with marijuana but with heroin. This time, not only the Serbian police worked on his arrest, but also the US anti-drug agency DEA.

However, on July 16, 2021, the Special Prosecutor's Office transferred the case files for Tofilović to the jurisdiction of a lower instance, the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Nis. And not only the files were gone, Tofilović was also sent to a detention cell in Niš by police from the Belgrade Central Prison. After less than a month - even though he was accused of dealing marijuana, and then of dealing heroin - it was decided that he would again defend himself from freedom. To make things even weirder, the DEA arrested a certain Milan Stanković from Niš together with Tofilović. As for Stanković, he remained in custody in Belgrade, and his case is still in the Special Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime.

MILAN KENDIJA, MUP

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Milan Kendija is a police officer responsible for the security of officials, who employed Tofilović as a bodyguard and driver of Predrag Koluvija in July 2019. Candy used to provide security for Police Director Milorad Veljović, as well as for President Vučić during one of his visits to Kosovo. During the search of the Jovanjica estate in November 2019, according to the inspector's testimony, Kendija was among the first to come to Stara Pazova and inquired with the police about the arrested Koluvija. Before his arrest, Kendija wrote a letter to the President of Serbia about the "Jovanjica" case, however, he did not manage to send the letter and it is now part of the court files.

On the eve of Tofilović's release from custody, after the DEA action in July 2021, his cousin Milan Kendija - as the media reported - celebrated the birthday of his friend, a rich man from the capital. According to the tabloids, around six thousand euros worth of champagne was drunk at a party in the center of Belgrade. Kendija was also in the company of the Serbian ambassador to Montenegro, Vladimir Božović.

ALEKSANDAR TOŠIĆ, BIA

He was accused of being a member of Koluvia's "protection ring". It is suspected that he came to the Jovanjica estate, while the search was in progress, on the orders of his colleague Mirko Šker. Then Tošić, according to the inspector's testimony, asked that the information about the arrest of Predrag Koluvija not be released to the media, because - as he said then - he has a cooperative relationship with him.

SASA VUJISIĆ, VOA

Sasa Vujisic Member of VOA Photo: facebook

He was accused of being part of Koluvija's "protection ring". At the time of the exposure of Jovanjica, he was working as a VOA officer. According to the prosecution, Vujisic made a decision of the Military Intelligence Agency for Koluvija, in which he was falsely presented as a lieutenant colonel of this agency. The decision also states that the VOA director authorized Koluvia to "perform tasks related to the associate Miodrag Poznan".

Vujisić forged the director's signature and misused the agency's seal, the indictment states. Just a few days after Koluvija was arrested, Vujisić was promoted in the VOA on November 25, 2019 and transferred to the operative training center. As the expert explained to KRIK journalists, candidates for ambassadors abroad are trained in the center.

However, Vujisić did not stay long in his new position. At the end of November 2019, disciplinary proceedings were initiated against him because he forged the director's signature and misused the center's seal. It seems that this was a signal to Vujisic that he had better leave Serbia. His predictions were good. When he was already in America, in January 2020, the Ministry of Defense issued an order terminating Vujisic's service. The reason was not his involvement in crime, but the fact that he did not show up at work for five days in a row - from December 12 to 19, the document says. A red Interpol warrant has been issued for Vujisić.

Agricultural estate "Jovaniva" photo: screenshot muo.rs

According to unofficial information, Vujisic was also registered by the FBI in America. However, despite dozens of urgencies by the Serbian Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and the Ministry of Justice, the American authorities do not extradite Vujisic, nor do they explain their decision.

As KRIK previously wrote, Saša Vujisić collaborated with another criminal group in the past - one that dealt with tax evasion and was led by fugitive Nebojša Kojadinović. Vujisić got through all the difficulties well: he agreed with the prosecution to receive a suspended sentence for his cooperation with Kojadinović.

Involvement in crime did not threaten his position in the military intelligence agency for years, in which he lost his job only after he disappeared in January 2020, KRIK revealed. The biography of the most mysterious member of Koluvia's team, who is called Owl, also contains accusations from a business partner that he cheated him while working on the theater play "Spamalot", as well as for cooperation with people who are close to the ruling structures in North Macedonia.

Vujisić was also involved in arms trade, also with partners in the territory of North Macedonia. According to KRIK, in November 2017, Vujisić entered into an agreement with prosecutor Tamara Ristić and admitted that he had evaded taxes. He was sentenced before the High Court in Belgrade to a suspended sentence and a fine of 420 euros. He also had to pay the stolen tax to the state. The fact that he was convicted before the court for organized crime did not prevent Vujisic from continuing to work for the Military Intelligence Agency (VOA).

PROSECUTOR TAMARA RISTIC

She works at the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and, in addition to concluding a plea agreement with then VOA member Saša Vujisić, she is also known for leading the investigation in the case of the "aunt from Canada" - she was imprisoned without even hearing Minister Aleksandar Vulin. , nor revealed where he got the money he used to buy an apartment in Belgrade.

RADOVAN BOJOVIĆ, MUP

A police officer from the Economic Crime Suppression Department of the Belgrade Police, Radovan Bojović, informed Koluvija, whom he beat with "Bato", about the outcome of the court proceedings against his own brother, Vulet Bojović. Namely, Vule Bojović was arrested for skunk smuggling in Croatia several years before the exposure of Jovanjica.

BRANISLAV RADISAVLJEVIĆ, BIA AND MUP

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Radisavljević worked in the BIA, and then at the request of the former state secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Serbia, Dijana Hrkalović, he was transferred to temporary work in the police as her assistant. According to the indictment, Radisavljević was one of Koluvia's closest associates, who is suspected of having enabled him to use the license plates of the Criminal Police Directorate so that he could transport drugs without fear of being arrested.

From the correspondence between the members of the organized criminal group, it is also known that Radisavljević registered potential enemies of Koluvia as members of the opposition in Serbia, and checked their data without authorization and eavesdropped on them.

During the search, around 50 euros and several packets of cocaine, ready for sale, were found in Radisavljević's apartment. When the inspectors asked him if it was a drug, Radisavljević answered that it was some medicine that his late father used.

APPLICATION "CONVERSATION"

During the investigation in the "Jovanjica" case, not only the defendants were questioned, but also their phones. While the anti-narcotics inspectors were tasked with finding the marijuana, their high-tech crime colleagues managed to crack the codebook of the secret chat application through which members of Coluvia's group, the indictment alleges, arranged to grow and distribute the drug.

"The defendant Predrag Koluvija was so sure that the prosecuting authorities would not reveal to him the hidden application for conspiratorial communication that he voluntarily handed over the mobile phone with the code to the police officers. The mobile phone was the subject of an expert examination, when an application with a digitron interface was discovered, in which it was necessary to enter a code in order to access the correspondence of encrypted users, who were marked with code names... The application was successfully decoded, which identified all users, including were also members of an organized criminal group. An inspection of the correspondence of the application establishes that the members of the organized criminal group had clearly defined roles", wrote the prosecutor in this case Saša Drecun.

Parts of the messages that Koluvija and his associates exchanged with each other via the "Razgovor" application were also cited in the indictment. You can see how much care they took to ensure that their traces did not remain on the drug packaging. The indictment states that only high-ranking members of the criminal group had the application "Razgovor". However, this application was also installed by Coluvia's associates, who are not accused of participating in the cultivation of marijuana.

Experts in high-tech crime discovered that 51 people had the encrypted chat application, and among them were members of the security services: Aleksandar Tošić from the BIA, Milan Kednija and Radovan Bojović from the MUP. The police inspectors were not only amazed by the amount of drugs but also by the communication between the suspects.

"For the officers of the Fourth Department, the Republic of Serbia, and perhaps in Europe, this is one of the largest seizures of narcotic drugs. The communication method itself has the highest level of protection. It is an advanced application, the system itself, which is not attached to some external servers, but a server developed in the company itself, represents the highest level, that is, the level they have seen so far while observing and working on the arrest of persons selling narcotic drugs", said the witness is police inspector Ljubomir Petrović. At the time of his arrest, Koluvija had four phones with him.

ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL INVESTIGATION OF JOVANJICA

After the disclosure of the "Jovanjica" case, the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime launched three investigations, i.e. three proceedings, and is assigning them to three prosecutors. Although the law does not require it, they say that this is the practice in this prosecutor's office.

The first case concerns the Organized Criminal Group "Jovanjica", the prosecutor is Saša Drecun, and so far he has filed two indictments. Jovanjica's finances are being investigated by a prosecutor and, according to unofficial information, she has never budged. She is reportedly intimidated and expects to retire soon.

The proceedings on the economic crime of the "Jovanjica" case also did not budge from the deadlock, it is being conducted by the prosecutor who is about to retire, and he is allegedly intimidated.

ZORAN GANIC, SPECIAL COURT JUDGE

Zoran Ganic, referee, photo: printscreen

Will there be someone to judge the "Jovanjica" case? Let's not forget, judges also receive their salary from citizens' taxes. Preparatory hearings for the "Jovanjica dva" case cannot be held. Then one of the defense lawyers doesn't come, so vacations, illnesses... and the judge's exemption is requested....

The trial has not even started and the case is getting further and further away from "Jovanjica jedan". It was prosecutor Drecun who warned that this would happen if the cases were not joined. Although he could have done so according to the Code of Criminal Procedure, Judge Zoran Ganić still decided to leave that decision to the judicial panel, which will make it only when the preparatory hearings for "Jovanjica dva" are held.

According to unofficial information, Judge Ganić has requested on several occasions to be transferred to the Court of Appeal or Cassation, and to leave the trial for Jovanjica to someone else...

INDICTMENT "JOVANJIKA THREE"

This indictment could include the heads of the security services and politicians who were actually the highest protectors of Predrag Koluvia. It is speculated that Jovanjica was a drug-corruption business of epic proportions, which served for the personal enrichment of powerful officials, as well as for filling black state funds.