INDICTMENT FILED AGAINST NINE PERSONS FOR ORGANISED CROSS-BORDER SMUGGLING OF LIVESTOCK AND TEXTILE GOODS

The Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina filed an indictment against the following persons:

-         Duško Bajić, born in 1982 in Zvornik, citizen of BiH,

-         Savo Bajić, born in 1986 in Zvornik, citizen of BiH,

-         Sveto Bajić, born in 1956 in Zvornik, citizen of BiH,

-         Negoslav Obackić, aka ‘Beli’, born in 1997 in Zvornik, citizen of BiH,

-         Darko Obackić, aka ‘Dalton’, born in 1994 in Zvornik, citizen of BiH,

-         Nikola Obackić, born in 2001 in Zvornik, citizen of BiH,

-         Slobodan Radišić, nicknamed ‘Slobo’, born in 1973 in Bijeljina, citizen of BiH,

-         Božidarka Prodanović, nicknamed ‘Maca’, born in 1968 in Bijeljina, citizen of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and

-         Kerim Husičić, born in 1980 in Banja Luka, citizen of BiH.

The charges against the defendants are that in the period between July and early November 2020 they, namely the defendant Duško Bajić as the organiser of the group, who organised, arranged and prepared the smuggling of livestock, and other members of the group, smuggled the livestock by boat across the Drina River from Serbia to BiH. According to the allegations from the indictment, the accused would find and buy cattle in large quantities in the territory of the Republic of Serbia. The persons known to them would bring it to the border between the Republic of Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina and then, in individual instances, they themselves would directly smuggle it across the Drina River by boat, without obtaining necessary approvals, by avoiding customs measures and veterinary controls. After this, they would obtain fictitious documents and ‘ear tags’ for the smuggled livestock from the veterinarians and veterinary stations known to them.

For the purpose of its further resale, the accused would transport the livestock to facilities on the plots of land owned by the accused Savo, Duško and Sveto Bajić, or directly to end consumers. In the aforementioned manner, the accused took part in the organised smuggling of at least 224 pieces of livestock from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina across the Drina River.

The charges against the defendant Duško Bajić are that he as the organiser of the group for smuggling goods-textiles, together with other members of the group, by avoiding customs control measures, dealt in the illegal transfer of large quantities of textile goods across the state border by boat, across the river Drina, from Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and that then they transferred and transported the smuggled goods to the plots of land owned by the defendant Bajić and further to the end customers - owners of the shops in the Arizona market who had previously ordered the smuggled goods.

Through the aforementioned activities, the organisers and members of the group acquired unlawful property gain in a larger amount.

The charges against the defendants are that they, by avoiding customs control measures, transferred goods across the customs line without appropriate approvals, namely the goods whose import or export is prohibited, restricted or requires a special approval or permit from the relevant authority, thereby committing the criminal offence of Associating for the purpose of perpetrating criminal offences set forth in Article 249, in conjunction with the criminal offence of Smuggling of goods set forth in Article 214 of the Criminal Code of BiH.

The indictment was forwarded to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for confirmation, which confirmed it.