Acting on the order and supervision of the Prosecutor of the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption of the Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina, SIPA police officers, with the support of the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior, the RS Ministry of Interior, Foreigners Affairs Service and ISA B&H, carried out an operation codenamed "Fast" and deprived of liberty five suspects, and conducted searches of facilities at several locations.

The activities were realized in cooperation with USKOK and the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Croatia, and are aimed at detecting and prosecuting the organizers of illegal smuggling of dozens of migrants from Bosnia and Herzegovina to the Republic of Croatia and other EU countries.

The suspected organizers are citizens of Afghanistan, and the investigation established that, acting as an organized group with other suspects, in order to gain illicit property, they organized, coordinated and smuggled dozens of illegal migrants, mostly citizens of Afghanistan, who came to B&H from Serbia, and were smuggled across the river and land border from B&H to the Republic of Croatia.

As part of this operation, a coordinated investigation by the institutions of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia lasted for several months, in order to identify and process the perpetrators.

The suspects deprived of their liberty are charged with criminal offenses - organizing a group or association for smuggling migrants in connection with human trafficking, stated the B&H Prosecutor's Office.