Montenegro's President Rallies US Senate Allies in Fight Against Organized Crime

A High-Stakes Meeting at the Top

Montenegro's President Jakov Milatović gathered an unusual group around one table on October 11 — two of the United States' most senior senators, along with the country's top two prosecutors — and delivered a message that cut to the heart of his presidency. Milatović met with U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen and Dick Durbin, Supreme State Prosecutor Milorad Marković, and Chief Special Prosecutor Vladimir Nović to discuss strengthening the rule of law and the fight against organized crime and corruption. His closing words left little ambiguity about what he is fighting for: "Our goal is a state stronger than organized crime and corruption, and institutions that citizens trust," the president declared.

Milatović emphasized that the partnership with the United States is of special significance for building strong institutions that effectively fight organized crime and corruption. The meeting was not merely symbolic. An additional dimension for strengthening cooperation in the rule of law is the appointment of the new U.S. Ambassador to Montenegro, Peter McCoy, a former federal prosecutor from South Carolina, whose experience could be significant for knowledge-sharing and advancing cooperation in the fight against crime and corruption.

A Country at a Crossroads

Organized crime and corruption have plagued Montenegro, a Balkan Mediterranean country of 630,000 citizens, which has repeatedly pledged to tackle these scourges under pressure from the European Union in order to join the bloc. The stakes could not be higher: the European Commission's Enlargement Commissioner has indicated that if current progress continues, Montenegro could complete negotiations by the end of 2026 or 2027, with membership technically possible by 2028, and the EU Commission's November 2025 enlargement report states that Montenegro is "on track" to meet ambitious goals.

But the path is strewn with obstacles. Since 2014, a conflict between rival organized criminal groups has undermined security in the country, and the number of attempted killings in public places decreased temporarily after 2020 but rose again in 2024, when four suspected gang members were killed in less than six months. Earlier this year, Milatović took the extraordinary step of publicly shaming his own government after a convicted crime boss slipped away while under house arrest. He called it "an unprecedented scandal and a collapse of an unserious system," adding that "if the state loses a convicted organized crime figure on the day of sentencing, the prime minister has no control over his own government."

Institutions Under the Microscope

Milatović has been consistent and blunt in diagnosing the problem. He has acknowledged that "individuals who were supposed to protect the law, in the prosecutor's office, the police and the judiciary, were themselves part of the networks that collapsed it," stressing that the integrity of people in the security and judicial system is crucial, and that "it is important for institutions to remain clean, strong and resistant to abuse." At the same time, he has linked the fight against corruption directly to the preservation of state assets and the responsible management of public funds, noting that the most severe consequence of systemic corruption is not merely financial loss, but the erosion of public trust — the belief that institutions operate fairly and that the rules apply equally to everyone.

The U.S. has not been a passive observer. In September 2025, the U.S. Department of State publicly designated former Budva mayor and Member of Parliament Milo Božović and former President of the Supreme Court of Montenegro Vesna Medenica as generally ineligible for entry into the United States due to their involvement in significant corruption that enabled drug trafficking. That kind of international accountability pressure is precisely the kind of partnership Milatović is now institutionalizing through direct senatorial engagement.

What Comes Next

Milatović has argued that the erosion of public trust is the greatest barrier to Montenegro's aspirations of joining the European Union, and has cautioned that success will not be measured solely by the number of closed negotiation chapters, but by the tangible reality of a state where public money is spent responsibly and state property is protected. That is a notably honest framing for a leader whose country is sprinting toward an EU membership deadline.

Montenegro urgently needs an anti-mafia law that will enable more efficient verification of the origin of assets and the seizure of illegally acquired funds, Milatović has argued — a legislative priority that remains unfinished. With U.S. senators now personally engaged, a new American ambassador who is a former federal prosecutor on the ground, and EU accession negotiations entering their final phase, the pressure on Montenegro's institutions has never been greater. Whether the state can truly prove itself stronger than the criminal networks that have long shadowed it will determine not just Montenegro's European future, but the credibility of democratic reform across the entire Western Balkans.