Montenegro arrests lawmaker on drug trafficking, criminal charges

A lawmaker and mayor of a resort town in Montenegro was arrested on Thursday on charges of drug trafficking and running a criminal organization.

Milo Bozovic, a parliamentarian and mayor of Budva, a town on the Adriatic Sea, was arrested on the orders of the Special State Prosecutor's Office.

Several other suspects were also arrested in Budva, Cetinje, and the capital Podgorica in an operation carried out with the support of EU law enforcement agency Europol, according to Vukas Radonjic, a spokesperson for the judicial authority.

Bozovic was apprehended "because there are grounds for suspicion that he committed the criminal offense of creating a criminal organization and three criminal offenses of unauthorized production, possession, and distribution of narcotic drugs," Radonjic told reporters.

Bozovic, 46, is a high-ranking official in New Serbian Democracy, a party that is in the ruling Democratic Front alliance.

He has been a parliamentarian since August 2020 and became the mayor of Budva last October.

In a statement, Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic said Montenegro needs "brave people … to stand together in the anti-mafia coalition."

This is not the first such case in Budva as several officials from the coastal town have been arrested since 2014 for corruption and being part of criminal organizations.