Thus, since most of Montenegro's educated merchant seamen come from Kotor, the city has emerged as a recruitment ground for sailors tasked with smuggling cocaine on cargo ships, on a South America - Europe route.
They reinvested the proceeds from their criminal enterprise into numerous business ventures in Montenegro and the region, including high profile nightclubs and hotels.
In 2010, Dragan Dudić was murdered in Kotor, while Šarić clan was largely neutralized in regional police action "Balkan Warrior".
The 2021 takedown of Sky ECC encrypted communication network has shed light on many previously unsolved crimes committed by the two clans, as well as on their connections with various Montenegro police and government officials.
Both clans have offshoots and associates in countries of the Balkans region, as well as in rest of Europe - Spain (major transit and unloading point for cocaine shipments, particularly Valencia, Balearic and Canary Islands), Italy (using Port of Gioia Tauro as a transit point of cocaine shipments, in cooperation with 'Ndrangheta), Austria, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Greece, Hungary, Ukraine and Turkey.
Also, clans maintain a direct presence in South America, with ports in Brazil, Ecuador and Uruguay being identified as loading points for Montenegro cocaine smugglers.
[3] The organization has a local reputation to have connections with corrupt high-ranking men in Herceg Novi, Tivat, Kotor, Budva and Ulcinj Regional Police Units.