Bosnian police detained 84 people in an operation against an organized crime group, codenamed “Launderer“. Victims from several European countries lost at least US$3.1 million, and the budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) was damaged for more than US$300,000 through an elaborate stock fraud scheme.
The BiH Federal Police said Wednesday at a press conference that the operation was conducted two days ago in Sarajevo, Banja Luka and Bihac.
The European Commission (EC) published an eagerly awaited progress report on Bulgaria and Romania, covering the period since the two countries joined the European Union in 2007.
At that time the EC established a monitoring framework that stipulates biannual reports on how the two are meeting goals set out for them. According to the EC, Bulgaria has made a significant progress in its basic legislative framework, and its politicians have shown a strong will to push for legal reform. However, effective implementation of laws is still lacking, and there are key strategic gaps, the report adds.
Organized Crime investigators have arrested 22 people and are investigating another 50 on suspicion of organized crime, money laundering, and tax evasion. All appear to have been involved in a stock scam and posed as employees of a fictitious company that defrauded European Union citizens out of millions.
At the center of the scheme is “Dunmorr Group AG“ whose majority holder, as the Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) found, is a Bosnian national Goran Samardzija. Samardzija lives in Belgrade, Serbia, and his company is registered in Switzerland, with branches in Bosnia and Serbia.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has launched a new global campaign to raise awareness that transnational organized crime carries an annual cost of US$870 billion.
With the campaign slogan “Transnational Organized Crime: Let’s put them out of business,” UNODC wants people to realize that transnational organized crime has financial and social costs.
The European Commission (EC) has proposed a new directive to equalize criminal sanctions for fraud in its member states.
Even though the EU has a legal framework in place against fraud, money laundering and corruption, “Member States have adopted diverging rules and consequently often diverging levels of protection within their national legal systems” the proposal published Wednesday states.
Bosnian, Croatian and Slovenian authorities working together have dismantled an organized crime group that smuggled illegal migrants through the Balkans into Western Europe. The operation dubbed “Loca” was conducted at the request of the State Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovin and nabbed 12 suspects.
Bosnian authorities asked that seven of the suspects in custody, six Bosnians and one Turkish citizen, be jailed after the arrests Tuesday. They said the Bosnian nationals have multiple previous convictions and, if released, would ikely reoffend. There is a risk of flight for the Turkish national, they argued. Turkey does not extradite its citizens, and the Turkish suspect would be out of the reach of Bosnian judiciary is he were allowed to return home.
Deputy Prime Minister Bujar Bukoshi and Deputy Minister of Finances Astrit Haraqija have resigned amidst charges of corruption and abuse of power.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister Hashim Thachi officially accepted their “temporary” resignations Monday.
Prosecutors from the European Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo (EULEX) charged Bukoshi with taking bribes to award major health contracts, while serving as a minister of health. Ten other people were charged with abuse of power while they were working for Kosovo’s Ministry of Health. Haraqija was charged with corruption while he served as minister of culture.
After a six-month investigation, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Arizona has arrested 20 members of a group connected to the Mexican Sinaloa drug cartel and working out of Tempe some 150 miles from the Mexican border.
Police also seized three tons of marijuana, 30 pounds of methamphetamines, US$2.4 million in cash, an airplane, 10 vehicles and 14 guns.
The arrests resulted from “Operation Nayarit Stampede,” authorities said Friday. The operation was aimed at an elaborate drug trafficking network that operated across the border between Mexico and Arizona.They said the Arizona group distributed drugs to Alabama, California, New York, and other states.
Bulgarian police have seized 12 tons of hashish, worth about €360 million (US$445 million), destined for the European Union (EU) market, according to Director of the Main Unit for Combating Organized Crime (GDBOP) Staminir Florov.
He said Thursday that authorities found the cannabis resin in a warehouse in Mirovyane, a village near the capital of Sofia. It came from Morocco, and authorities believe fishermen transported it via the Black Sea.
Bulgarian authorities say that after months of investigation they have busted the “most powerful hacker group” in the country, the Cyber Warrior Invasion.
Raids in nine cities Wednesday resulted in seized computers, various electronic devices, hard drives, and more than 200 CDs. Police characterized the action as “unprecedented.”