ZAGREB ZAGREB, Oct 4 (Hina) - About 862 kg of 90-percent pure cocaine, worth at least DM 70 million on the illegal drug market, was incinerated in Zagreb on Wednesday.
ZAGREB, Oct 4 (Hina) - About 862 kg of 90-percent pure cocaine,
worth at least DM 70 million on the illegal drug market, was
incinerated in Zagreb on Wednesday.#L#
The cocaine was seized last December and this May in the northern
Adriatic ports of Rijeka and Plomin respectively. Both actions were
undertaken jointly by the Croatian police, the Interpol, and the
United States' Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
Croatian Interior Minister Sime Lucin, present at the
incineration, was hopeful that in the future the police, in
cooperation with colleagues from the DEA and the Interpol, would
break chains smuggling such huge drug shipments and prosecute those
leading and organising the chains.
The interior minister's assistant for crime police, Dragutin
Cestar, said police activities related to the clarification of the
smuggling were ongoing, "especially in the Rijeka seizure, for
which one person has been arrested."
Further activities are continuing in cooperation with Interpol
offices in several countries, and we expect to solve the case in the
near future and establish everybody's participation in the
smuggling chain, said Cestar.
Two weeks ago, a general with Bosnia and Herzegovina's Croat
Defence Council (HVO), Ivan Andabak, was arrested for being
implicated in the smuggling. Lucin and Cestar did not want to
comment on the matter, saying an investigation was still ongoing.
The Rijeka confiscation, in which 661 kg of cocaine was seized, was
the biggest ever in Croatia. The cocaine had been boarded onto a
tuna ship container in Ecuador, while the buyer had been stated as
an unknown company from Rijeka.
The seizure of 241 kg of cocaine in Plomin on May 27 was among the
three biggest in Croatia. The drugs were found on the Grazia
Bottiglieri cargo ship after notification from DEA offices in
Vienna and Columbia, whence the ship sailed out.
(hina) ha jn