On Monday, police officers of the State Agency for Investigation and Protection, acting according to the order of the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina and under the supervision of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, searched residences, auxiliary facilities and movable property in three locations in the area of Bihać.
During the searches, items were discovered and temporarily confiscated, which can serve as evidence that the criminal offenses “Smuggling of persons” and “Organizing a group or association to commit the criminal offense of “smuggling of migrants” have been committed, prescribed by the Criminal Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Six persons were deprived of their liberty, of which four persons are citizens of Pakistan and two persons are citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The persons deprived of liberty were handed over to the further jurisdiction of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina after criminal processing and interrogation as suspects. Citizens of Pakistan will be handed over to the jurisdiction of the Foreign Affairs Service within the legal term.
During the search at one of the locations, 50 migrants of various nationalities were found, whom the aforementioned group intended to smuggle into the territory of the Republic of Croatia. The work done on the case so far has established that the said group smuggled over 300 migrants in the last month.
Work is also underway to determine the total number of smuggled persons who smuggled persons deprived of their liberty in the previous months, which is assumed to be several times higher.
Operation “Vega” was carried out in cooperation with police officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Una-Sana Canton and officers of the Service for Affairs with Foreigners, SIPA announced.
(TYPE/Photo: Illustration)
