Officers have swooped on eight alleged organized crime gangsters as part of a large narcotics bust involving cross-border police cooperation and multiple raids.

The arrests of eight suspects on Thursday Dec. 11, aged from 35 to 64 years, marked the beginning of "Operation Oscar", which officials said was the product of months of planning by Bosnian intelligence services in coalition with Serbian police.

 The suspects, seized during ten raids in the capital of Sarajevo as well as the smaller towns of Bihac and Zvornik, are linked to the distribution of heroin and cannabis from Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo. Bosnian state police (SIPA) say the alleged traffickers may have mixed drugs on Bosnian territory to transport on to Serbia and Croatia.

Police confiscated more than 1kg of heroin, 800g of drug mixing substance, packaging tools and a digital scale.

The suspects are allegedly connected to five people arrested in Bosnia and Serbia between June and December 2014. Those arrests resulted in three drug seizures totalling 1.2kg of heroin and 500 g of cannabis. 

According to a 2011 UNODOC report, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a commonly used transit country for drugs destined for Western Europe. Only an estimated 35 percent of heroin passing through Bosnia is thought to be distributed domestically.

reportingproject.net