SIPA

During early morning hours, police officials of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) continued the activities on apprehension and searches of housing and other facilities in several locations in Sarajevo, Tuzla, Brčko, Bijeljina and Zvornik within the case codenamed "Master".

The activities were carried out upon the orders of the B&H Prosecutor's Office and B&H Court and with the assistance of Indirect Tax Authority of B&H, Tuzla Canton MoI, Republic of Srpska Ministry of Interior and Brčko District Police.

The activities are a follow-up of the operation codenamed „Master“ which started 26/8/2013 and resulted in apprehension of nine individuals due to grounds for suspicion of having committed the criminal offence under the Article 250 of CC B&H „Organised Crime“, in conjunction with criminal offence set out in the Article 210 of CC B&H „Tax Evasion or Fraud“, criminal offence under the Article 216 of the CC B&H „Customs Fraud“ and criminal offence under the Article 209 of the CC B&H „Money Laundering“.

Today's operation resulted in apprehension of nine individuals of which six were imposed measures of deprivation of liberty. These individuals are high ranking officials of the state administrations suspected of having committed, as members of the organised crime group, the criminal offence under the Article 250 of the CC B&H „Organised Crime“, in conjunction with criminal offence under the Article 220 of the CC B&H „Abuse of Office and Official Authority“, criminal offence under the Article 217 of the CC B&H, „Accepting Gifts and Other Forms of Benefits“ and criminal offence of the Article 31 of the CC B&H „Accessory“.

In this case, years-long organised criminal activities were conducted, inter alia, by officials who abused their official authorities by unlawful import of different types of goods and legally banned substances and assets along with the violation of prescribed customs procedures thus undermining security of B&H citizens and inflicting multimillion damage on the state budget.

The searches were carried out in ten locations resulting in a discovery and seizure of certain quantity of fire arms, extensive documentation about the suspects’ property suspected of having been acquired with the money originating from crime as well as other financial documentation and items that can be used in further proceedings (mobile phones, SIM cards, computer equipment, passenger vehicles, etc.).

The apprehended individuals are brought to the SIPA premises in Tuzla where they will be criminally processed and handed over to the B&H Prosecutor Office for further proceedings.

Activities within this case will be continued and the public will be duly informed.

You can find the video of the arrests here.