The Montenegrin police, police attachés and liaison officers have quality cooperation; the joint fight against internationally organized crime will continue to be a priority in the future

Director of the Police Directorate Veselin Veljović held the XIII annual meeting with police attachés and liaison officers with his associates in Podgorica today. The cooperation of the Police Directorate and police attachés and liaison officers was assessed as quality and professional, with concrete results. It was concluded that cooperation and contacts will be further intensified in order to prevent and combat contemporary global security risks and threats.

The XIII annual meeting was opened by Interior Minister Mevludin Nuhodžić and Director of the Police Directorate Veselin Veljović. Director Veljović then presented the results of the work of the Police Directorate from last year, with special emphasis on significant progress and measurable results achieved in the fight against organized crime. The Director also presented the new organizational structure of the police that will strengthen already existing police units in the detection, suppression and prevention of the most serious crimes.

Interior Minister Mevludin Nuhodžić said that the year was marked by intensive international police cooperation with concrete results, and that in order to counter organized crime, illegal migration and terrorism, we must continue to act jointly. The Minister said that the joint actions that resulted in the seizure of a significant amount of drugs and the arrest of high-ranking members and those who are bearers of organized crime had caused a severe blow to the criminal groups and their actions had been severely impaired by the state. The progress made is encouraging, especially given the fact that MoI coordinates the processes in negotiating chapter 24 - Justice, freedom and security, and the fact that this chapter will be the last one closed imposes great responsibility on the Ministry, and therefore, as the Minister said, it is pleasing to know that in this business we can count on permanent support. The Minister added that enhanced regional cooperation is extremely important for the security of the borders, because the criminal groups are interconnected, and therefore, through concrete actions, we must show that none of our countries is a safe place for criminals.

Director of the Police Directorate, Veselin Veljović, said that Montenegro had established high-quality mechanisms for the fight against organized crime, adopted high-quality legal solutions, established professional institutions whose competence is the fight against organized crime, and achieved measurable results in that area. Veljović said that the goal of fighting serious and organized crime, which will continue to be the priority of the Police Directorate, is to bring before justice everyone in the chain of criminal structures, and that the police will, therefore, in coordination with the prosecutor's office, emphasize cooperation with the Chief Special Prosecutor, work even harder and more intensively on the suppression of all forms of crime. The Director emphasized that the security situation in Montenegro in 2018, by the most number of parameters, was favorable, and that the results of the solving of crimes in the previous year had improved compared to the previous year. The Police Directorate has been recognized as a reliable partner in addressing contemporary security risks and threats, and the presented results confirm the readiness of the Police Directorate to continuously strengthen police cooperation and exchange of information at the regional and international level, as well as by achieving operational coordination aimed at detecting, suppressing and preventing criminal offenses and the prosecution of their perpetrators, the Director said, adding that the police in the future will be significantly devoted to the dynamic path of our EU integration, as well as meeting the requirements defined in the Action Plan of the EU Enlargement Strategy.
Police attachés and liaison officers, as well as representatives of international organizations, assessed that cooperation with the Montenegrin police was very good and successful, and in the discussion that followed, they discussed the modalities of its further strengthening and intensification, in order to carry out joint activities in the future on the suppression of all forms of international and transnational crime.

At the end of the meeting it was concluded that the Montenegrin police committed themselves to adopting and applying European standards, and that it is dedicated to further enhancing police cooperation and strengthening capacities to combat the most serious forms of crime with an emphasis on the fight against organized crime. It was assessed that the very good and high-quality cooperation between our police and police attachés and liaison officers is confirmed by the achieved results in resolving a number of security issues, and that further strengthening of mechanisms for the exchange of information between police organizations is necessary for the timely joint action in the actions of locating and depriving of liberty of persons and criminal groups that are internationally wanted. It was jointly assessed that international police cooperation is a component without which it is not possible to combat global security challenges and threats, and that activities carried out in the previous period have confirmed that the Montenegrin police is a confidential and reliable partner in the fight against international crime.

At the XIII annual meeting, there were 40 police attachés, liaison officers and representatives of international organizations participating.