Dubrovnik Police Seize 61.6 Kilograms of Cocaine and 219.7 Kilograms of Heroin in Two Operations

(Patria) - Police officers from the Criminal Police Department, the Maritime Police Station, and the Intervention Police Unit of the Dubrovnik-Neretva Police Administration, in cooperation with the PNUSKOK of the Criminal Police Administration, police officers of the ATJ Lučko, police officers of the Split Special Police Unit, the competent state attorney's offices, the Customs Administration at its headquarters and in Rijeka, and the Mobile Customs Unit Service Dubrovnik, have conducted two significant criminal investigations related to the production, smuggling, and sale of drugs over the past few months.

On this occasion, a press conference was held today at the Dubrovnik-Neretva Police Administration, where the results of the mentioned criminal investigations were presented, discussed by the Head of the Dubrovnik-Neretva Police Administration, Ivan Pavličević, the Head of the Drug Crime Service of PNUSKOK within the Criminal Police Administration of the Ministry of the Interior, Dražen Rastović, the Head of the Criminal Police Service of the Dubrovnik-Neretva Police Administration, Zoran Tikvica, and the Head of the Mobile Services Unit - Customs Dubrovnik, Pero Perić.
 
As part of these separate and unrelated criminal investigations, 61.6 kg of cocaine and 219.7 kg of heroin were seized.

Chief Ivan Pavličević stated in his introduction that these criminal investigations are proof of the persistent and patient work of police officers from this police administration, achieving excellent cooperation with colleagues from Zagreb and Split, as well as with the Customs Administration, with whom we have been successfully cooperating for years, which ultimately resulted in these truly impressive quantities of seized drugs, and this is also a continuation of a series of successful seizures of large quantities of drugs in the area of this police administration.

Over the past 10 years, this police administration has had a total of 9,213 drug seizures, during which 767 kg of cocaine, 289 kg of heroin, and about 2.5 tons of marijuana were seized.

These criminal investigations involved seizures of various types of drugs, and it is important to know that each drug has its own completely different modalities: from the place of production, methods of storage, smuggling, and finally, sale, which means that this police administration has all the necessary capacities, in terms of knowledge and experience of police officers, without which such results would not be possible.

He once again emphasized the importance of the motivation of police officers who track down international drug smugglers and thus cut off their smuggling routes, thereby making not only Croatia but also neighboring countries and the European Union, which is the most common destination point for cocaine and marijuana smuggling, safer.

Finally, he thanked all collaborators in these criminal investigations and added that this is an indicator of very strong border control at sea and on land, as well as local street reduction.

In the continuation of the conference, Zoran Tikvica explained that these are mutually unrelated criminal investigations that began based on quality collected operational information that was carefully analyzed and ultimately resulted in the seizures of cocaine and heroin.

The cocaine was found on November 3 last year on a ship that sailed from South America into the Port of Ploče. It is a bulk carrier, and the cocaine was found by divers from ATJ Lučko, the Split Special Police Unit, the Intervention Police Unit, and the Maritime Police Station of this police administration, who found a metal box attached with magnets to the ship's metal plating at a depth of 16 meters, containing 3 packages made of adhesive tape and foil with a total of 54 packages containing a total of 61.6 kg of cocaine.

The criminal investigation did not establish that the captain or any of the ship's crew were involved in this smuggling, and this police administration has established international police cooperation with Western European countries, thus continuing this criminal investigation. 

In the second criminal investigation, heroin was found on October 11 last year in the Port of Ploče, based on an order from the County Court in Dubrovnik, through the joint work of police officers from the Criminal Police Service of this police administration and customs officers from the Mobile Services Unit.

The search was initiated after an excellently conducted profiling that resulted from a thorough risk analysis, and the search uncovered 80 cast lead cubes, 40 of which contained heroin, with a total weight of 219.7 kg. The drug was found in a shipping container for cargo transport that arrived at the Port of Ploče on a ship from South America.

Dražen Rastović emphasized that in both cases, sophisticated smuggling methods were used that are very difficult to detect, and that this quantity of seized heroin, which was intended for the Western European market, is the largest in the Republic of Croatia. He also noted that the weather conditions of a strong south wind were extremely unfavorable for finding the cocaine, which was hidden in a metal container attached with magnets to the underwater part of the ship's hull at a depth of 16 meters.