The decryption of protected phone applications, which the police agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the judiciary obtained in cooperation with EUROPOL and other international institutions, resulted in the arrest of a tens of officers of the police and security agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
They are suspected of abuse of official position and cooperation with members of criminal groups in the Balkans. Without the data obtained in such a way, it is unlikely that certain collaborators, which criminals have in the police and security structures, would ever be discovered.
Police actions Transporter, Storage, and then police actions Staza, Ira and Golub resulted in the arrest of criminal groups that were discovered after the decryption of the encrypted phone applications Sky and Anom.
Police agencies in Bosnia and Herzegovina and the judiciary received information about this in cooperation with international police institutions. In addition to the members of the criminal groups, their collaborators in the police and security structures were arrested and taken into custody. In the latest police action, Nedeljko Lubura, the chief inspector of the Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska, was arrested.
After admitting that he had smuggled a dangerous criminal on the Interpol warrant, Ivan Mijatović, in the trunk of an official vehicle, the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina terminated his custody and ordered prohibitory measures.
The State Prosecutor’s Office focused on the prosecution of criminal offenses of organized crime and high corruption, especially those in which police capacities and resources of the state are abused for the commission of criminal offences.
“From the beginning of the year until now, in more than a ten cases, members of police agencies and certain holders of judicial functions have been deprived of their freedom, which results in the indisputable connection of organized criminal groups with persons from police agencies, and in such a way it is clear that it is difficult to protect the investigation itself and collect quality evidence”, pointed out Milanko Kajganić, vice director of Chief Prosecutor in the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Bojan Cvjetić, a former adviser to former security minister Dragan Mektic, was arrested as part of the police operation Transporter, who claimed that he did not know anything before Cvjetić joined the state ministry.
“It shocked me. I couldn’t have guessed. The check was done”, commented Mektic.
OSA officer Robert Rudonjić from Banja Luka was arrested due to his ties to Bojan Cvjetić’s criminal group. After the arrest of Željko Radovanović, a member of the Zemun clan, as part of the “Ira” operation, the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina clarified that the data of decrypted phone applications revealed how international drug smuggling took place, and there is photo documentation for everything. Jovan Savić, a judge from Bijeljina, was also arrested as part of the “Ira” operation.
By decrypting encrypted phone applications, police agencies and the judiciary in our country have obtained data that will help them deal with high level corruption.
“It has been made possible to focus on certain persons who are in high positions both in political and judicial and police structures, which I consider very important for a society to deal with such persons or groups in a timely manner”, emphasizes the director of the Police Administration of the MIA of Tuzla Canton- and Dzevad Korman.
“Unfortunately, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, corruption is far more prevalent in any sphere, and especially in the police-judicial system, where a very large segment and spectrum of secret data that is of interest to criminal groups comes to the fore,” says security expert Sandi Dizdarević.
Decryption of protected telephone communications revealed associates of the Kavački and Škaljarski clans in various institutions in the Western Balkans.
Investigations are continuing and it will be known very soon whether new data from protected telephone communications will reveal all associates of these criminal clans who unhindered abused official functions in various institutions, especially in police and security structures.
