A long-running cross-border investigation has led to the takedown of a large-scale drug trafficking criminal network smuggling cocaine from South America into the EU. The operation spanned Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Serbia.
The cocaine traffickers targeted in this investigation used different maritime routes and modus operandi. The criminal network is connected to a seizure of over half a tonne of cocaine, with a street value of €50 million, at the port of Ploče in southern Croatia in late March 2021.
The drugs were concealed in a modified cargo container floor. This seizure is a further indication that international drug trafficking organisations are increasingly targeting smaller EU ports.
On 26 November 2024, law enforcement authorities arrested 11 suspects (two in Bosnia and Herzegovina, one in Croatia and eight in Serbia). One of them is a high-value target.
During the house searches, law enforcement officers seized weapons and a large amount of ammunition, as well as several expensive vehicles, watches and over €1 million in cash. Four other individuals under investigation for belonging to this network are already imprisoned. International arrest warrants have been issued for three others.
The criminal network bribed several corrupt customs officers to avoid police and customs controls during the logistical phase of the export. One corrupt customs officer was arrested during the operation. The other arrests were of members of the criminal network who played different roles in the organisation.
Some of them led different criminal cells, while others either financed the activities or coordinated and arranged the logistics. An EU member state already wanted one of the suspects, a high-value target arrested in Serbia. He was involved in a million-euro theft as part of the notorious Pink Panther group.
Both the theft and his escape from prison after his conviction date back to the early 2000s.
This investigation is a follow-up to a previous operation against a connected criminal network. These cross-border operations result from intelligence developments following the takedown in March 2021 of the encrypted communications platform Sky ECC.
In cooperation with France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, as well as with the support of Europol’s Drugs Unit, Serbia was able to identify the key targets in its territory and map its criminal activities across the world. This criminal organisation is believed to be linked to a large-scale criminal network importing multi-tonne shipments of cocaine from Colombia through Brazil and Ecuador.