Of 27 suspects, 20 were arrested in Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Zagreb and Karlovac counties. Eight of the 20 suspects are believed to have had the main role in organising and financing the drug smuggling chain and are expected to be brought before the Rijeka County Court today.
This is the second international group of cocaine smugglers to be arrested in Croatia this week.
Zagreb police arrested a group in whose possession they found almost four kilograms of cocaine. The group bought the drugs in Rotterdam with the help of two Dutch nationals. Twenty suspects from the group are from Croatia and the others are from Serbia and Germany.
The foreign nationals have been in prison in Italy and Serbia from before and five suspects are out of reach of police.
It is believed that this year 18 members of the group had in seven turns
smuggled some seven kilograms of cocaine from Peru to the EU and further to Croatia and Serbia, earning at least five million kuna (approx. 690,000 euros).
Police and USKOK officials believe that the group was organised by two men from Zagreb and Rijeka who had been linked previously with the criminal underworld.
This was an international police operation, during which Italian police discovered 60 capsules with 650 grams of cocaine in a mule's stomach at Milan airport on May 24, while Serbian police discovered 76 capsules with 760 grams of cocaine in the body of another mule on June 6.
The arrested have also been charged with vehicle theft, robbery, and acts of violence.