The 10 arrested Croatian citizens were escorted to an investigating judge and the Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organised Crime (USKOK), which coordinated the work of the police, secret services and Slovenia's police, will request that they be placed in custody and put under investigation, USKOK manager Dinko Cvitan told the press on Thursday.
Several dozen pieces of illegally manufactured weapons, 2,000 pieces of ammunition, 15 hand grenades, various types of illegal drugs, cell phones, suspicious bank cards, forged state institutions' seals, driver's licences and other documents have been seized.
Police chief Marijan Benko said the confiscated arms were intended for murders, robberies and terrorism.
He said the arms were of high quality and that they would not have led to the perpetrator of a crime even if they had been found given that they had been manufactured or processed in an illegal factory.
Benko said the seizure was the result of highly professional work of the Croatian police, good cooperation with other countries, and the use of all of USKOK's capacities.
Slovene police chief Joze Romsek too commended good police cooperation.
Benko said the arrests began at 6 am on June 6, that no inappropriate force was used and that the suspects sustained no injuries. However, one 80-year-old suspect requested medical assistance and subsequently died in hospital of a heart attack. The police did not reveal the identity of any of the suspects.
They are suspected of conspiracy, unlawful possession of arms and explosive substances, and customs evasion.
The Croatian police launched the operation after an analysis of their own data and information received from other countries led to suspicion that arms were being manufactured or processed in Croatia and transferred to other countries. Information about the trafficking came from Slovenia, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Austria, and Belgium.
In the meantime, larger quantities of arms with the Smith & Weson, Mirco Uzi and Scorpion brands were seized on a number of occasions in Croatia and abroad and were later established to have been manufactured at the same illegal workshop.
Fifty-one persons were investigated, including three from Slovenia, said the police.
Slovene police confirmed today they had completed the operation in cooperation with the Croatian police and said that a number of persons were arrested in Slovenia for arms smuggling.