Police in Podgorica have filed a request for an Interpol international fugitive warrant for Kalic, who is 41 years old. He is believed to be hiding in Turkey.
“We suspect that these three have committed a criminal offense of money-laundering by putting millions of euros into the legal cash flows of their business firms,” a police spokesman who announced the arrest said. “It is suspected that this money was earned by selling drugs.”
The indictment says that Amina, Mersudin, and Safet Kalic laundered their drug profits by taking out loans from banks and repaying them with dirty money “to create the illusion of legal origin of money, or to hide the money trail and the fact that [Mersudin Kalic] had gotten a criminal offense.”
Late Wednesday night, police searched other properties belonging to the Kalic family and seized several luxury cars, cash and other belongings.
According to a Vjesti, a Montenegrin newspaper, Safet, Amina, and Mersudin owned and/or directed several firms: “Daut & Daut,” “Eye Security” and “Tajson.” Another firm, “Turjak,” has holdings that include a petrol business whose owner is Mersada Sabotic, the sister of Mersudin and Safet.
In 2003, authorities from the former state of Serbia and Montenegro identified Kalic as a drug boss. Police also tied him to the Zemun Clan, a Serbian gang involved in drug trafficking. Members of the Zemun Clan are thought to be those responsible for the assassination of former Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in March, 2003.
In May, 2010 several videos of his wedding were posted on Youtube. The videos showed guests who are notorious in the constellation of organized crime operatives. Among the guests were fugitive Darko Saric, who is suspected of smuggling more than two tons of cocaine. Also present was Ljubisa Buha Cume, former chief of the Zemun gang.
Some employees of the Montenegrin Agency for National Security were shown on the wedding film as well, including Ljubisa Mijatovic, then-Prime Minister Milo Djukanovic’s head of security.
