Kelmendi started building a Casa Grande Hotel in Ulcinj without a construction license in 2006. According to the complaint, he is suspected of concluding an Agreement on Financing of Planning Documentation with Hajdinaga and wiring a €225,000 advance to theMunicipalityofUlcinj, even though the Town Inspectorate forbade the construction and ordered the building to be knocked down.
Casa Grande Hotel was finished and opened in July 2010, a month after the Zoning Department of Ulcinj Municipality turned down his written request to legalize it.
A Kosovo born businessman, Kelmendi moved toBosnia and Herzegovina(BiH) after the war. Three police agencies in BiH have been investigating him for years but he was never prosecuted. The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIN) published in 2009 that the State Agency for Investigation and Protection (SIPA) described Kelmendi as a kingpin of one of the best organized criminal groups in the region.
SIPA presented its findings about “Naser Kelmendi’s Criminal Organization“ at the meeting of Interpol’s General Secretariat in the French city ofLyonin November 2008. In the document Kelmendi was allegedly involved in narcotics and cigarette smuggling, human trafficking, money laundering and loan sharking.
Kelmendi’s organization has members inSarajevo,Tuzlaand Zenica, and its influence extends toMontenegro,Kosovo,Macedonia,Croatia,Serbia,Germanyand theUSA.
In 2009, CIN obtained land and business records that show Kelmendi has many real estate holdings in Montenegro, including an apartment, 11 housing units, a house and a 1,600-square-meter apartment building in Ulcinj.
In a statement to Sarajevo Canton prosecutor Oleg Čavka in September 2007, Kelmendi said that he’s building a hotel in Ulcinj and that he plans to earn money from hospitality.
According to Interpol documents obtained by CIN, the Montenegrin police was tailing Kelmendi and his sons in Ulcinj as far back as 2007. They used to come to this coastal town in expensive cars such as a Ferrari driven by Naser’s son Liridon.
