Montenegro's prime minister, Milo Djukanovic, is under pressure to come clean about his alleged involvement in tobacco smuggling after Italian prosecutors linked him with an organised crime racket worth billions of euros.
The prosecutors' office in Naples named Mr Djukanovic as a linchpin in the illicit trade which used Montenegro as a transit point for smuggling millions of cigarettes across the Adriatic sea into Italy and into the hands of the Italian mafia for distribution across the EU.
The accusation was contained in a report based on a year-long investigation which included transcripts of bugged telephone conversations between Mr Djukanovic and Italian mafia figures.
According to Italian media and western diplomats in the Balkans the report said: "It can be seen that Milo Djukanovic was in charge of monitoring the activities of the organisation led by Paolo Savino." Mr Savino is a senior figure in the Camora, the Naples-based mafia.
Opposition figures in Montenegro demanded that Mr Djukanovic go to Italy to clear his name but the prime minister rebutted the allegations. He said that Montenegro was used legally as a transit point for shipping cigarettes from the port of Bar to Italy.
Mr Djukanovic called a press conference in the capital, Podgorica, on Wednesday to deny the allegations as a "loathsome political trick", aimed at criminalising him and his country.
Mr Djukanovic has been accused in the past of sponsoring the criminal networks which thrived in the republic of 600,000 during the years of the Balkans war and international sanctions.
But the 354-page report by the Naples prosecutors' office contains the most detailed allegations against Mr Djukanovic yet.
Western diplomats say the Italians may press for an international arrest warrant, raising questions about the prime minister's immunity because of his office. The prosecutors' office forwarded the report to an investigating magistrate who said no charges could be brought because of political immunity.
In a separate lawsuit before a court in New York, the European commission named Mr Djukanovic in connection with an alleged money laundering conspiracy allegedly masterminded by the US tobacco giant, PJ Reynolds.
The EU is suing the tobacco company for allegedly selling its product to the mafia which smuggles it untaxed in the EU. Officials believe that a quarter of the cigarettes sold in the EU are smuggled.
PJ Reynolds has denied the accusations as "absurd".