Details of Operation Balkan Trigger: 10 Arrested, Weapons, Explosives, 52 kg of Marijuana Found

In a coordinated international police operation codenamed Balkan Trigger, conducted from 17 to 19 April 2016 on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia and Serbia, a large quantity of weapons, drugs, gold, money was found…

Only on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, 26 pieces of firearms were found and seized, with several pieces of ammunition of various calibers, 6,300 grams of explosive devices, 10 hand grenades, 250 grams of gunpowder, 1 passenger motor vehicle for which an international search was issued, 52 kg of the narcotic drug „marijuana“ was found, Patria reports.

10 persons were arrested, a number of checks for weapons were carried out in the iARMS database of Interpol and national weapons databases, and 11 requests for additional checks were sent to other countries via the iARMS application.

A number of checks were carried out through international and national databases of searches for persons, vehicles and documents (checks for 7,605 persons, 2,011 vehicles, 20 buses, 123 trucks).

The goal of the operation was to prevent and investigate criminal offenses related to illegal trade in firearms and explosive devices, while not neglecting the prevention and investigation of other criminal offenses in the field of organized crime.

The operation was carried out in cooperation with the General Secretariat of Interpol in Lyon, with the support of EUROPOL and FRONTEX. In the Directorate for Coordination of Police Bodies of BiH, within which the National Central Bureau of Interpol Sarajevo is located, a Regional Coordination Center was established for the purpose of more efficient exchange of information, coordination and implementation of the operation, in which, during the operation, representatives of police bodies from BiH and police of the countries covered by the operation were located.

During this operation in six countries, a total of 44 pieces of firearms were found and seized, with several pieces of ammunition of various calibers, 6,300 grams of explosive devices, 11 hand grenades, 250 grams of gunpowder, 257,000 euros, 14 kg of gold, 3 passenger motor vehicles for which an international search was issued, 52 kg of the narcotic drug „marijuana“ was found.

22 persons were arrested, of which 6 persons were deprived of liberty based on international warrants. A number of checks for weapons were carried out in the iARMS database of Interpol and national weapons databases, and so far 11 requests for additional checks have been sent to other countries via the iARMS application.

A number of checks were carried out through international and national databases of searches for persons, vehicles and documents (checks for 42,670 persons, 2,515 vehicles, 42 buses, 290 trucks, 451 documents).