IN FIGHT AGAINST ILLICIT TRADE IN EXCISE PRODUCTS PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA CARRIES OUT OPERATION CODENAMED “WOLF”

The target of the operation is 14 suspects, mostly from the area of Foča and its surroundings, who are suspected of smuggling and selling large quantities of cigarettes without BiH excise stamps in the second half of 2020, thus acquiring high amounts of unlawful material gain and damaging the BiH budget.

The prosecutor of the Special Department for Organised Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption of the Prosecutor’s Office of BiH working on the case is in the field where he coordinates the work of police officers taking part in the operation.

More than 250 police officers of the BiH Border Police and the Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior are taking part in the operation.

Searches are being conducted at a total of 20 locations and the target of the operation is 14 suspects, mostly from the area of Foča and the surrounding area, who are under investigation and charged that they, acting as an organised group, smuggled tobacco products - large quantities of cigarettes that were not marked with excise stamps as prescribed by the BiH tax legislation, mostly from the territory of Montenegro to BiH, and further distributed them on the illegal market of BiH.

The criminal offences were committed during the Covid 19 pandemic in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to the collected evidence, the damage inflicted to the BiH budget is at least around BAM 400,000.

During the investigation, evidence was gathered that the suspects acted as an organised group with clearly divided roles and tasks in the commission of criminal offences.

The suspects will be handed over to the case prosecutor, who will make a decision on further activities in the case.