Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency have spoken out about the “East Tourist” operation and discussed the details.
Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency today carried out the “East Tourist” operation in the areas of Sarajevo, Travnik, Cazin, Velika Kladuša and Bosanski Novi, during which residential and auxiliary buildings and movable property were searched at eight locations.
18 people were arrested and will be taken to SIPA premises during the day for criminal processing and questioning as suspects. Their further status will be determined by the acting prosecutor of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Operation “Istok Turist” is being conducted by order of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and under the supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, due to the existence of grounds for suspicion that the criminal offenses “Organizing a group or association for the commission of the criminal offense of migrant smuggling” and “Smuggling of people” prescribed by the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina have been committed.
The arrested persons have continuously organized migrant smuggling for several months by taking over migrants in the Sarajevo area, most often of Russian and Turkish origin, by prior agreement with foreign citizens or organizers of smuggling, who they then transported to the border areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and smuggled them into the territory of the Republic of Croatia, all with the aim of obtaining illegal material gain.
Members of the organized crime group were in charge of “recruiting” drivers who, on the territory of the Republic of Croatia, more precisely in the border area of Bosnia and Herzegovina with the Republic of Croatia, picked up migrants at agreed locations, whose illegal smuggling they had previously organized and implemented with the aim of entering the Republic of Croatia, and then transported them to Zagreb or other cities in the European Union.
The aforementioned drivers had previously been deprived of their liberty by police officers of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia. It is estimated that over 200 drivers who transported migrants to the Republic of Croatia and further to other European Union countries have been deprived of their liberty so far.
During the search, three passenger motor vehicles were discovered and temporarily seized, as well as other items that could serve as evidence that the aforementioned criminal acts had been committed.
The operational action codenamed “East – Tourist” is being implemented within the framework of OTF “Zebra”, in cooperation with EUROPOL as well as the judicial and police authorities of the Republic of Croatia.
During the implementation of the operational action “Istok Turist”, SIPA police officers established cooperation with the Service for Foreigners’ Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Intelligence and Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Cooperation was also established with police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Sarajevo Canton, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Central Bosnia Canton, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Una-Sana Canton and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republika Srpska.
The previously described activities are carried out as part of the Europol Days activities and under the auspices of EU4FAST.
