The Croatian police arrested 16 members of the group while they were trying to smuggle 86 people, the Macedonian police arrested 19 people who were trying to smuggle 100 illegal immigrants, the Bosnian police arrested ten persons who attempted to smuggle 216 people into Croatia and Slovenia, while the Serbian police arrested 11 people who tried to smuggle more than 50 illegal immigrants. The Slovene police arrested as many as 21 members of the group who tried to smuggle 216 illegal immigrants.
The police operation, dubbed "Danube", has shown that borders are irrelevant when it comes to regional police cooperation, because people involved in organised crime do not care about borders, Croatian Police Director Marijan Benko said.
Fifteen flats and houses in Croatia were searched as part of the operation, and the police discovered drugs, weapons and ammunition, large quantities of money, including counterfeit notes, a police badge, etc, Benko said.
The operation revealed that this was a very well organised group of criminals, with good financial support, who kept records of the smuggled people, on the basis of which profits were distributed, Benko said.
He went on to say that regional cooperation would continue and recalled a regional meeting of police officials in Dubrovnik a few days ago, which focused on cooperation during the tourist season.
Other police officials from the region also underlined the importance of cooperation, stating that joint operations like the most recent one would take the region closer to the European Union.