OPERATION CODENAMED "ROAD" AIMING TO DETECT AND DETER ILLEGAL MIGRANT SMUGGLING IS BEING CARRIED OUT IN TUZLA CANTON

By order of the Prosecutor of the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption within the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, police officers of SIPA are carrying out an operation codenamed "Road" in Tuzla Canton. The operation is focused on detection and prosecution of members of an organized international criminal group dealing with smuggling of foreign nationals, mainly Turkish nationals, through the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina towards the Federal Republic of Germany and other EU countries.

The investigating activities undertaken so far have determined that an international criminal group composed of nationals of several countries, including the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has organized smuggling of persons in the past period thus obtaining ill-gotten profit amounting to several dozen thousands BAM. The Assigned Prosecutor is out in the field coordinating the activities of SIPA officers and local police in terms of arrests and raids. The suspected members of an international criminal group, who are citizens of other countries, shall be prosecuted by the police and judiciary of the countries in which they are located within the framework of this international operation. After carrying out activities in the field and questioning the suspects, the Assigned Prosecutor will decide whether to file a motion for remand in custody or a motion to order prohibiting measures for the suspects in this case. The Prosecutor's Office of BiH, together with police and judicial institutions of the countries in the region and the European Union, continues with intensive activities in the fight against illegal migration and smuggling of illegal migrants across the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina and towards the EU countries.