Operation Lištica: Nine individuals released, five to be handed over to the BiH Prosecutor's Office

Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) processed 14 individuals who were arrested yesterday (February 11, 2016) in an operation codenamed "Lištica", after which nine individuals were released last night in accordance with the instructions of the acting prosecutor, and five suspects identified as Z.M. (1977), S.Č. (1987), G.M. (1979), LJ.Č. (1968), and M.K. (1958) will be handed over to the BiH Prosecutor's Office today for further proceedings. A larger number of individuals were questioned as witnesses, reports the BiH news agency Patria.

SIPA will submit the relevant reports on the execution of orders to the BiH Prosecutor's Office and the BiH Court during the day, and activities within this case are intensively continuing with the aim of clarifying criminal offenses and documenting the illegal activities of the suspects.

SIPA police officers arrested the aforementioned individuals due to grounds for suspicion that they committed the criminal offense of organized crime in connection with the criminal offenses of illegal trade in excise goods, illegal storage of goods, tax evasion or fraud, and money laundering. It is estimated that members of the organized criminal group, through illegal activities over a period of three months, sold at least 55 tons of tobacco, thereby damaging the BiH budget by approximately 7,850,000 KM, and the illegally obtained property benefit exceeds 1,200,000 KM.

Acting on the orders of the BiH Court and the BiH Prosecutor's Office, facilities at 25 locations in the areas of Grude, Široki Brijeg, Čitluk, Zenica, and Sarajevo were searched. During the searches, more than five tons of cut tobacco, about 18 tons of leaf tobacco, three tobacco cutting machines, a large amount of cash, four passenger motor vehicles, more than 800 boxes of cigarettes of various brands without origin, and other items that could serve as evidence in further proceedings were found and temporarily seized.