Asmir Mulaj and Kenad Muminović arrested in Živinice for cybercrime, drugs also found

As part of the international operation "Cryptus", which was carried out with the highest security and secrecy measures over the past few days, two suspects were deprived of their liberty in the area of Živinice. Activities in the Federal Republic of Germany and other EU countries included dozens of searches of suspects, announced the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, Patria reports.

In the greatest operational secrecy and confidentiality, over the past few days, a coordinated action was carried out by partner institutions of BiH and the Federal Republic of Germany, in the fight against a connected network of perpetrators of criminal offenses in the area of the two countries, who use the most modern computer technologies for committing criminal offenses and criminal activities.

An investigator from the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH was on the ground, coordinating the joint work of police officers of the RS Ministry of Interior and the Federal Police Administration, with support provided by operatives of the OSA BiH during the implementation of activities.

After several months of specialist investigation, in BiH, in the area of Živinice, the following suspects were deprived of liberty:

- Asmir Mulaj, born in 1988 in Istok, Serbia, citizen of BiH,
- Kenad Muminović, born in 1990 in Užice, citizen of BiH.

Simultaneously with the deprivations of liberty, searches were conducted of apartments, facilities, garages and other premises used by the suspects.

During the searches, certain sophisticated computer equipment was found, as well as a certain amount of narcotic drugs. The aforementioned are suspected of participating in the operation of an illegal internet service, which was used to commit a number of criminal offenses, as well as providing infrastructure for the commission of criminal offenses (illegal purchase and sale of narcotic drugs, weapons and other prohibited means, data on bank cards and means of payment, as well as data on personal documents and identification and other criminal offenses).

The persons deprived of liberty are suspected of the following criminal offenses:

-organized crime (Article 250 of the Criminal Code of BiH)
-money laundering (Article 209 of the Criminal Code of BiH)
-unauthorized trafficking in narcotic drugs (Article 195 of the Criminal Code of BiH)
-counterfeiting of credit cards and cards for cashless payment (Article 276 of the Criminal Code of RS)
-forgery of documents (Article 377 of the Criminal Code of RS)

According to the collected evidence, the organized criminal group operated in the territory of Germany, BiH, Austria, Switzerland and other German-speaking areas.

After the deprivation of liberty, activities were undertaken to prevent the destruction of evidence and ensure the presence of the suspects on the computer system, in order to collect evidence, as well as the search of digital data carriers, hard drives, USB memories and other computer equipment, and to prevent the automatic destruction and encryption of data.

This operation represents one of the largest investigations of computer crime to date in BiH and the region, which, in addition to representatives of the Prosecutor's Office of BiH, also involved police officers specialized in computer and high-tech crime from the RS Ministry of Interior and the Federal Police Administration, and based on the approval of international legal assistance, experts in computer crime from the Federal Republic of Germany were also present.

In the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany and the EU, an action was carried out that included several dozen persons, for whom evidence was collected that they participated in illegal and criminal activities via the internet.

The Prosecutor's Office of BiH and partner agencies in BiH are cooperating with institutions in the countries of the European Union and the entire world in the fight against serious forms of high-tech and international crime, and this cooperation will continue in the future, because the fight against this type of crime requires rapid and continuous international cooperation of law enforcement agencies. (av)