And while citizens are barely surviving, and politicians are struggling to stay in power, the story of the investigation into the use of encrypted phones via the Sky app is in the shadows.
The Prosecutor’s Office of BiH has formed several cases, and the possible involvement of police and security officials in connection with organized crime and drug trafficking is being investigated.
As BHRT finds out, certain threats have been made to the prosecutors working on these cases.
In the last few months, a large criminal chain of drug trafficking has been broken through the mobile Sky application in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The latest action resulted in the arrest of 19 people. And this will not stop. The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina is also investigating the possible involvement of police and security officials with drug clans.
Certain politicians and prosecutors are under scrutiny. So far, two thousand people have used the mobile Sky application in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is most often used in the criminal milieu, and in the commission of serious crimes, such as murder and organized crime.
There is some information that officials from police, security and other institutions were users of these applications, and the validity of such information will be checked in detail, as well as the existence of elements of criminal offenses.
One-month custody has been ordered for 11 people arrested in the Trail (Staza) operation, suspected of organized crime, illicit trafficking in large quantities of drugs, illegal procurement of specialist equipment for drug cultivation, as well as illegal arms trafficking.
They have been arrested thanks to evidence gathered through the Sky app, through which the suspects communicated. Now, when more applications do not provide the possibility of protected communication, numerous criminal acts are revealed. It is suspected that 2.000 users of the application were from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
A large number of criminals, drug dealers, and those involved in other forms of high crime have been detected with the help of the Belgian Sky application, which comes pre-installed on special mobile devices with a SIM card and leaves the possibility of fully protected communication, and the subscription price ranged from 500 to 2.200 euros per year. In March last year, the FBI requested access to the data from the said application, which culminated in the closure of Sky ECC company.
”I assume that the FBI has done data processing, investigations so far, it has certainly shared information with other law enforcement agencies, primarily the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EUROPOL), and that this is how they came to our regional police agencies,” Predrag Puharic mentioned, an expert in cybercrime.
Regional and state police agencies took advantage of the Sky application to process data, and it was found that more than 2.000 people in BiH used the application. 19 of them were arrested in the Trail operation.
”Huge quantities of various types of drugs have passed through this area as well as huge amounts of money earned in that way. These are the most serious murders that criminals committed using encrypted phones and trying to organize murders in that way, and they thought they would be protected,” Dragan Lukac stated, Republika Srpska (RS) Interior Minister (SNSD).
It has also been proven that the advisor to the former Minister of Security, Dragan Mektic, was a user of this application. Many expressed their suspicions that some other officials also used this application, and called on the authorities to be transparent and publish their names.
”It is good that these applications can be unpacked, people can be prosecuted on that basis, and I have nothing against that and I do not see what would be an obstacle to publishing the names of all individuals who used the Sky application,” said Mektic.
So far, 19 are known, and 11 are in custody. The Prosecutor’s Office stated that they are working on several cases, which include international cooperation, in connection with deciphering various applications, through which criminals have communicated in a protected manner so far, and will now be used to expose them.
