Kotor

Former president of the Montenegrin Supreme Court Vesna Medenica at a press conference. Photo: PR Centar

In the transcripts of the conversations using the encrypted messaging application Sky ECC, Milos Medenica claimed his mother was aware of their illegal business and said that they can expect protection from her.

Media reported that she was arrested for abuse of office.

The special state prosecutor's offices in Podgorica, Montenegro. Photo: EPA/BORIS PEJOVIC

Police arrested Kascelan, 58, on April 21 suspicion of organising a criminal group that had committed and planned several serious crimes, while another high-ranking gang member, Radoje Zvicer, escaped from the country.

Montenegrin police with packages from the seized cocaine shipment in Podgorica. Photo: Montenegrin Police.

"Police seized 1,205 packages of cocaine in the village of Mojanovici in the Zeta district near Podgorica. The drugs were find in a banana shipment," police said on Twitter.

Police footage of Slobodan Kaselan's arrest in Kotor, Montenegro. Photo: Twitter/Police Diretorate

Kascelan, 58, is listed in Montenegro police records as one of the leaders of the drug gang based in the Montenegrin town of Kotor. But in 2019 such claims or any involvement in drug trafficking.

Christ resurrection temple in Podgorica, Montenegro. BIRN/Samir Kajosevic

"He violated the temporary measure that religious rites must be performed exclusively without the presence of believers," the police said in a press realise.

The country, which has been run by the same party for the past three decades, has a long record of restricting human rights and violating data privacy rights.

Activists fear the government will exploit the COVID-19 pandemic to clamp down further. The government says its overriding priority is to protect the lives and health of Montenegrin citizens.

Greek law enforcement officials are planning to visit Serbia in the immediate future to discuss the murder of Montenegrins Igor Dedovic and Stevan Stamatovic, who were gunned down at a taverna in the seaside resort of Vari in Attica last Sunday.

The two Montenegrin men who were shot and killed on Sunday by four masked gunmen while they were dining with their wives and two children in Vari, southern Athens, had pending international arrest warrants against them issued by Montenegro, according to Greek police.

The presidents of Italy and Montenegro ceremonially turned on an undersea power cable connecting the two countries via the Adriatic sea on Friday, making Montenegro a Balkan energy hub at the flick of a switch.

Serbian criminologist Dobrivoje Radovanovic has warned that Serbia must cooperate more effectively with Montenegro and step up its attempts to combat violent crime after another murder of a Montenegrin citizen in Belgrade.

"Better cooperation between Serbia and Montenegro would help," Radovanovic told BIRN.