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Bosnian Police Officials Arrested In Large-Scale Drug Operation
The raids were conducted at dozens of locations across Sarajevo.
April 23, 2024
By RFE/RL's Balkan Service
Bosnian police have raided multiple locations in Sarajevo in a large-scale antidrug operation that led to the arrest of 23 people, including several high-ranking Bosnian law enforcement officials suspected of close links with Edin Gacanin, a drug kingpin arrested in November 2022.
The raids were conducted on April 22 with the backing of EU and U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Those arrested are suspected of involvement in organized crime, money laundering, influence peddling, abuse of office, bribe taking, and the disclosure of classified information, according to a statement by the Interior Ministry of Sarajevo Canton -- one of the 10 cantons of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, one of the two entities of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Vahidin Munjic, the acting director of Bosnia's federal police, and Mustafa Selmanovic, the commander of a police special unit, were among those arrested during the raids, the interior minister of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, Ramo Isak, confirmed to RFE/RL.
The raids were conducted in more than 30 Sarajevo locations with support from the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol), the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), and the FBI.
The two police officials are suspected of being close associates of Gacanin, nicknamed "Tito," who since March last year has been on the sanctions list of the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which has described him as "one of the world's most prolific drug traffickers."
Raids were also conducted in Zenica and Mostar.
Europol described the raid as a "milestone in the fight against the so-called ‘super cartel,’ an alliance of criminal networks that controlled much of Europe’s cocaine trade."
"The primary objective of operation codenamed 'Black Tie' was to indict and prosecute a Bosnian-Herzegovinian/Dutch national considered a High Value Target by Europol and the Netherlands," Europol said in a statement, without mentioning Gacanin by name.
Europol said that, despite his arrest in 2022, the individual "continued to steer drug trafficking from source countries in South America such as Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, to Europe, and Australia from his base in Dubai, United Arab Emirates."
Europol added that those arrested include "not only accomplices, but also corrupt officials identified as facilitators of the network’s criminal activities."
One of the agencies involved in the operation, Bosnia's State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), said several bank accounts were checked and transactions of more than 300,000 euros ($320,000) were blocked. Copyright © Apr 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 conncwsecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. http://www.rferl.org
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