Cetinje: Third Suspect Identified in Belada-Ivanovic Murder
One year after the double killing on the Budva-Cetinje road, Montenegrin police have identified a third person suspected of aiding in the murders of Stefan Belada and Andrija Ivanovic.
A year after Stefan Belada and Andrija Ivanovic were shot dead in an ambush on the Budva-Cetinje road, Montenegrin police have identified a third person suspected of helping carry out the killing. The case is being followed in Belgrade as well, since the murder is linked to the long-running conflict between the Skaljari and Kavac clans, whose violence has spilled into Serbia for years.
Belada and Ivanovic, both from Cetinje, were killed on September 24, 2025, on the Budva-Cetinje road, near the village of Ugnji. Their bodies were not found until five days later, on September 29, at around 3:45 p.m., inside a vehicle on a gravel turnout roughly 250 meters from the main Cetinje-Budva route. The investigation established that a tracking device had been secretly planted on Ivanovic’s car, which, according to findings so far, allowed the attackers to locate both men and wait for them in ambush.
Nikola Drecun and Predrag Mirotic were previously charged with the murders. The Police Administration said that, working in coordination with the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica, it has now identified a third person suspected of being connected to the crime. Police have not released the identity of this third suspect.
A separate report, filed as a supplement to the earlier criminal complaint, was submitted to the competent state prosecutor at the Higher State Prosecutor’s Office in Podgorica against the third person, on suspicion of committing aggravated murder by aiding the killers of Belada and Ivanovic. The Police Administration said the information gathered so far suggests the crime was carried out in an organized manner, but that it cannot share further details for now, citing the interests of the ongoing investigation.
Some domestic media reported the announcement under headlines claiming a third accomplice had been arrested. The police statement itself, as quoted verbatim by Portal Analitika and the Borba portal, makes no mention of an arrest, speaking only of the identification of a third person and the filing of a supplementary report with the prosecution. Whether that person has since been deprived of liberty does not follow from the statement.
The Police Administration said it would continue, in coordination with the prosecutor in Podgorica, working to identify other individuals connected to the killings of Belada and Ivanovic. It added that coordinated efforts continue on solving other crimes against life and body committed in the preceding period, as well as on dismantling criminal networks, and that the public would be informed in due course.
The Skaljari-Kavac conflict, into which Belada and Ivanovic were reportedly drawn according to investigators so far, has dragged on for years and claimed dozens of lives across several countries in the region. Its reach has been felt in Serbia too, whose institutions have previously cooperated with Montenegrin prosecutors on similar organized crime cases. The Police Administration gave no indication of when the third suspect’s identity might be officially disclosed.
