CRO. POLICE BREAK INTERNATIONAL WEAPONRY SMUGGLING CHAIN

SPLIT, July 13 (Hina) - The Split-Dalmatia Police Department and the Croatian Interior Ministry's special unit in Mravinci broke an explosive and weaponry smuggling chain which from Split-Dalmatia County in southern Croatia supplied international terrorist organisations, a police spokesman said in Mravinci on Thursday. Three persons from Dobranje in the Imotski area were arrested, said Leo Tauber, spokesman for the Split-Dalmatia PD.#L# A search of several houses and economy buildings in Dobranje resulted in the finding of an enormous quantity of weaponry and explosives in functioning order, without the original boxing. Tauber said the smuggling chain had been broken thanks to months of operative activity, and that a suspicion was proven correct that there was a group of people who used the political climate in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina to procure and hide explosives and weaponry. Thanks to connections with international terrorist organisations, the group forwarded the weaponry and explosive abroad. Tauber said it had been confirmed through customary professional relations with foreign intelligence services that some terrorist actions in West European countries had been carried out with weaponry of Croatian origin. He showed reporters the huge ammount of seized weaponry and explosives, including seven rocket launchers. Criminal procedure is in progress. (hina) ha mm