Police in BiH battle arms traffickers

06/11/2008

International smuggling rings are the target of a major police operation conducted over the past several months.

By Jusuf Ramadanovic for Southeast European Times in Sarajevo – 06/11/08

The operation netted a large quantity of weapons and other lethal materials. [Getty Images]

Through a large-scale international operation, police in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) have been making a concerted effort to suppress organised crime rings smuggling weapons via its territory to other rings operating in the EU countries.

Operation West was conducted over the past several months in BiH and in some of its neighbours. Police from the Federation of BiH and Republika Srpska co-operated with counterparts in neighbouring countries and in some EU member states, including Slovenia, France, Austria and Croatia. The State Information and Protection Agency (SIPA) was also involved.

Since January, when investigations began, police have netted a large quantity of arms and other lethal materials, such as automatic rifles, rocket launchers, handguns, automatic weapons, hand grenades, various munitions, detonators and spare parts for weapons.

The seized material includes pentrite, an explosive more powerful than TNT. Factories in the former Yugoslavia produced it for that country's army. Traffickers intended to resell those munitions in the Western European countries at a much higher price than available in the Balkans or for potential terrorist acts.

During September, police arrested six people allegedly involved in the crime ring, four in BiH and two in Slovenia. They issued arrest warrants for two other suspects living in France. In this sting, police seized 62kg of pentrite, as well as a large number of automatic weapons, antitank rockets, detonators and ammunition.

At a press conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, spokesmen explained that the ring was very well organised and gave each member specific tasks. Its intention was to smuggle a large quantity of weapons and explosives into other EU states and reap huge profits.

During the months-long investigation, authorities identified Slovenia as a transit country for illegal arms being smuggled from the Western Balkan countries into the EU states.

Around mid-October, in another part of the sting, the SIPA raided many locations in central Bosnia and in the metropolitan areas of Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Zenica. It arrested six people, whom it handed over to the State Prosecutorial Office for further processing. Police discovered during the investigation a number of weapon "shipments" had already gone undetected to the EU countries, where traffickers sold them.

At a press conference in Sarajevo, Dragan Lukac, deputy director of the SIPA, disputed the accuracy of some international reports alleging links between the arms-trafficking rackets and al-Qaeda.

The six suspects arrested in October came from different backgrounds, Lukac said, describing them as a "multi-ethnic group of criminals".