DETENTION MOTION FOR ONE AND PROHIBITION MEASURES FOR THREE SUSPECTED PERSONS THE OPERATION CODENAMED ‘PLUG’ /PLOW/

After interviewing the suspects, the prosecutor-in-charge of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina submitted to the Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina a motion to order one person into custody and prohibition measures for three suspects, in a case with elements of corruption, who were deprived of their freedom within the SIPA operation carried out in the area of Sarajevo, Tuzla and Srebrenica in cooperation with the Federation Ministry of Interior, Republika Srpska Ministry of Interior, Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Interior, Tuzla Canton Ministry of Interior and the Indirect Taxation Authority of BiH (ITA BiH).

The detention measure for the suspect Danka Katanić, born in 1973 in Užice, citizen of BiH and the Republic of Serbia, employed as a customs officer in the ITA BiH, was proposed for the reasons described in Article 132 (1) (a), (b) and (c) of the Criminal Procedure Code of Bosnia and Herzegovina, i.e. due to the risk of flight, as well as the risk that the suspect could obstruct the investigation, conceal evidence, influence witnesses or accomplices, or commit a criminal offence again or complete the one started.

In respect of the suspects Elvira Ibrahimović, born in 1990 in Zvornik, citizen of BiH, Alen Hukić, born in 1983 in Novi Pazar, citizen of BiH and the Republic of Serbia, and Marko Marković, born in 1992 in Bajina Bašta, citizen of BiH, prohibition measures were proposed in accordance with the law, which include a travel ban with confiscation of travel documents and a ban on issuing new travel documents, as well as a ban on the use of their respective identity cards to cross the state border of BiH, a ban on meeting certain persons, and mandatory periodic reporting to the state authority.

As part of investigative and operational activities, information and evidence was collected that the suspects, as members of an organised criminal group, acting together with clearly defined roles, in the period from March to the beginning of October this year, with the intention of acquiring unlawful property gain, on several dozens of occasions smuggled large quantities of excise goods (hookah tobacco) across the state border from the Republic of Serbia to Bosnia and Herzegovina, and then stored them and put them into circulation as non-cleared goods on the BiH market. In this way, the payment of customs and tax liabilities in the amount of BAM 750,000 was avoided, for which amount the BiH budget was damaged.

The allegations against the suspect Katanić are that she, as an official of the ITA BiH, employed as a customs officer in the Skelani Customs Office, using her official position, by carrying out corruption activities for agreed amounts of money, took part in the smuggling and transportation of hookah tobacco across the state border.

The suspects are under investigation due to the existence of a well-founded suspicion that they committed the criminal offence of organised crime in violation of Article 250, in conjunction with the criminal offences of illicit trade in excise goods in violation of Article 210a, unauthorised storage of goods in violation of Article 210b and smuggling in violation of Article 214, and the suspect Danka Katanić also for the criminal offence of abuse of office or official authority in violation of Article 220 of the Criminal Code of BiH.

3,250 kilos of excise goods (hookah tobacco), 509 kilos of hookah coal, and a large amount of money were temporarily seized within the ‘Plug’ /Plow/ operation.