Montenegro has indicted five more suspects in Operation “General,” a transnational cocaine-smuggling network targeting South America, Europe, and Australia. The charges build on a January indictment against 20 others from the same network.
Montenegro’s Special State Prosecutor’s Office has filed an indictment against five additional suspects accused of belonging to an international cocaine smuggling group dismantled in Operation “General,” in July last year—one of the largest international crackdowns on cocaine trafficking at the time.
The indictment, filed with the Special Department of the High Court in Podgorica, names Kristijan Drešaj, Novak Joksimović, and Rajko Smolović, along with two individuals identified only by their initials, A.Š. and D.K. Prosecutors said the five are accused of joining a criminal organization and taking part in large-scale cocaine trafficking.
According to prosecutors, the group was formed in early 2020 by alleged drug bosses Vaso Ulić, Radoje Zvicer, and Slobodan Kašćelan—leaders of the so-called Kavač clan. Members were assigned specific roles, used business structures to cover their activities, and laundered money to conceal illicit profits, the office said.
The organization allegedly sought to smuggle cocaine shipments from South America by sea. Colombian authorities intercepted 1,570 kilograms in October 2020, while Australian authorities stopped another 903 kilograms in June 2021.
“The subject of the indictment is the activities of a criminal organization … which operated on an international scale, with the aim of smuggling the narcotic drug cocaine from South America to Europe and Australia,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The case expands on an earlier indictment filed in January 2025, when prosecutors charged 20 defendants from the same network, including Ulić, Zvicer, and Kašćelan. That indictment was confirmed and is now on trial in Podgorica. Prosecutors have also launched a financial investigation to trace suspected money laundering and illicit assets.
The new charges come against the backdrop of a violent feud between Montenegro’s two most notorious drug clans, the Kavač and the Škaljari. Both originated in the coastal town of Kotor and once worked together to smuggle cocaine from South America to Europe before splitting in 2014. The conflict has since spread across the Balkans and beyond.
