All three companies whose cigarette smuggling was concealed by the company Playmaker LLA14 through fictitious exports to Libya are now shut down. MANS reveals that two companies were closed even while they were trading in cigarettes through the Free Zone of the Port of Bar.
Shutting down these companies allowed their actual owners to keep illegally earned profits and avoid responsibility, thus making it difficult for the Special State Prosecutor’s Office to conduct criminal proceedings.
One of those companies, ABC Development Corp, was founded in Panama. Its official representatives formally manage thousands of other companies, which shows that they are appointed only to hide the actual owner.
Back in April 2016, this company was suspended for non-payment of fees and lost the right to do business until the debt was settled, but it continued to import cigarettes to Montenegro. From 2017 to 2019, the company imported over 300,000 packs of cigarettes. It was shut down in November 2019, but during 2020 and 2021, it continued the fictitious export of cigarettes to Libya in cooperation with the company Playmaker, which was previously published by MANS.
Another Panamanian company that traded in cigarettes through the Free Zone via Playmaker is
Amenua. Its official representatives also formally perform the functions of directors in hundreds of
Panamanian companies, in order to hide the actual owner.
In 2019 and 2020, with the help of Playmaker, this company imported 240,000 packs of cigarettes. It
was shut down in June 2023, during the Special State Prosecutor’s Office’s investigation into cigarette
smuggling.
The official owner of the third company, Lenora International from Delaware, is Branislav Tomašević
from Mitrovica.
The business of that company was suspended even before it signed the contract with the Port of Bar on
performing activities in the Free Zone, and it imported cigarettes only after it was shut down.
Lenora lost the right to do business after the resignation of the official representative on May 6, 2020,
and could only continue its work after the appointment of a new one.
However, nine days later, on May 14, 2020, the official owner of that company signed the Agreement on
the performing of activities in the Free Zone with the then director of Port of Bar.
The documentation for that company was provided by the company Playmaker, which was later also
Lenora’s freight forwarder for the import of cigarettes.
Since it did not appoint a new representative within the legal deadline, Lenora was shut down on June 5,
2020.
In August 2020, one month after shutting down, that company imported the first cigarettes into the
Free Zone of the Port of Bar. By the end of 2020 and the beginning of 2021, that company illegally
imported almost 130,000 packs of cigarettes.
In the same period, it also fictitiously exported cigarettes to Libya, using the same mechanism as ABC Development Corp and Amenua, with the support of the Playmaker company.
The Customs Administration did not prevent the operations of closed companies despite the legal
obligation, which indicates serious omissions or corruption within this institution.
The Special State Prosecutor’s Office initiated criminal proceedings against the companies ABC
Development Corp and Amenua S.A. due to suspicion that they had been a part of a criminal
organization that smuggled cigarettes, organized by Đorđije Pavićević, the owner of Playmaker.
MANS Investigative Centre
