Joint action by BiH and Serbia in fight against illegal migration within "Kajak" operation

(Patria) - The BiH Prosecutor's Office, together with the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), within the operation codenamed "Kajak", is carrying out activities in cooperation with police officers from the Service for Combating Organized Crime of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia (SBPOK) and the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime of Serbia.

The activities are aimed at dismantling and prosecuting organized crime groups operating in the territories of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which are organized for the smuggling of a large number of illegal migrants, in order to obtain illegal financial gain.

During the implementation of the "Kajak" operation, today, SIPA police officers in the Bratunac area arrested one person, suspected of being a member of an organized crime group, which was organized for the illegal smuggling and transfer of illegal migrants from the territory of Serbia to BiH, for further transport towards EU countries. The person is suspected of the criminal offense - Organizing a group or association for migrant smuggling under Article 189a of the Criminal Code of BiH.

Simultaneously, within this action, in the territory of the Republic of Serbia, in a coordinated action, SBPOK Serbia police officers arrested 6 suspects, including the suspected organizer of the group. Acting on the orders of prosecutors from the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption, SIPA police officers searched the residential and business premises used by the suspect from BiH, and seized items and evidence that will be used in documenting and prosecuting the criminal offense. Within the work on this international operation, support was provided by the Southeast European Law Enforcement Center - SELEC, and cooperation was established between the Prosecutor's Office of BiH and SIPA with the Intelligence-Security Agency (OSA) of BiH, the Service for Affairs with Foreigners of BiH, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republika Srpska.