Several persons arrested on suspicion of organized crime, tax evasion and procuring prostitution

Police officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) early this morning (8 October 2015) began implementing operational actions codenamed „Coral“ and „Tango“, which are being carried out simultaneously in the Sarajevo area. More than 100 SIPA police officers are on the ground.

As part of the „Coral“ operation, ten persons were deprived of their liberty on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense under Article 342 of the Criminal Code of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina „Organized Crime“ in connection with the criminal offenses of tax evasion, endangering security, preventing an official person from performing an official duty, damaging another's property, aggravated theft and organizing resistance, while the prime suspect is also linked to procuring prostitution.        

Searches of premises at 10 locations are underway with the aim of finding and temporarily seizing additional items that may serve as evidence in further proceedings.

As part of the „Tango“ operation, five persons were deprived of their liberty on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of procuring prostitution.

These activities are being carried out pursuant to orders of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo and the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton, and are the result of several months of investigations conducted by SIPA investigators under the supervision of the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office.

- The operation in question was carried out after a several-month investigation by the Cantonal Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton in cooperation with the State Investigation and Protection Agency and the Tax Administration of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina against the suspect Alen Čengić as the organizer of an organized crime group and other suspects who, as members of the group, committed a series of criminal offenses during the period when the company Holiday Resort d.o.o. Sarajevo used the premises of the Hotel Holiday Sarajevo HTD Sarajevo d.o.o. Sarajevo in bankruptcy, which they were forced to vacate by a Decision of the Cantonal Court in Sarajevo in June 2015 - stated the Prosecutor's Office of Sarajevo Canton.

Persons with initials A.Č. (1974), A.H. (1977), M.P. (1971), V.A. (1965), J.K. (1977), S.B. (1963), J.Š. (1962), E.S. (1987), D.I. (1985), A.S. (1978) and H.M. (1977) were deprived of their liberty.     Premises at 10 locations were searched, with the aim of finding and temporarily seizing items that may serve as evidence in further proceedings.

The said persons are suspected that, in the period from July 2014 to June 2015, with the aim of obtaining unlawful property gain, through the legal entity „Holiday Resort d.o.o. Sarajevo“, they managed and disposed of a large part of the property of the hotel „Holiday Sarajevo HTD Sarajevo“ in bankruptcy, by organizing the hotel's operations, controlling income and expenses, and other forms of control over the hotel's work. 

For this purpose, they used the services of persons loyal to them, such as IT experts, who unlawfully installed software programs and certain applications for them through which they concealed actual data on generated income. In this way, they avoided paying tax obligations in an amount exceeding several hundred thousand BAM.

Members of the organized criminal group used various forms of blackmail, threats, intimidation, physical attacks and other forms of pressure directed at the personal and property security of the temporary bankruptcy trustee and employees of the legal entity „Holiday Sarajevo HTD Sarajevo“ in bankruptcy, and their immediate family members, thereby causing them fear and distrust in police and judicial authorities.  

In the „Tango“ operation, five persons with initials S.D. (1969), K.E. (1974), A.K. (1985), E.LJ. (1982) and S.Z. (1988) were deprived of their liberty on suspicion of having committed the criminal offense of procuring prostitution. These persons are suspected of having participated in organizing and managing the provision of sexual services by making contacts with users and mediating in arranging the provision of sexual services.

They are suspected of transporting persons who provided sexual services to the agreed location and then picking them up. For the said services, they charged 25% of the agreed amount for providing the sexual service.