Police on Monday detained three suspected members of an organised crime group of vehicle thieves and found several vehicles that were reported stolen. N1 was informally told that one of the suspects was driving a black Range Rover which was seen in Sarajevo on the day of the murder of two police officers on October 26.
Several police agencies were on Monday evening involved in the crackdown on a criminal organisation of vehicle thieves, but police said they would not release further information until the investigation is completed.
N1 was informally told that the State Protection and Investigation Agency (SIPA) found several vehicles and vehicle parts that were reported stolen, and that officers stopped the black Range Rover with stolen license plates and detained the person driving it.
The vehicle was seen on October 26, when two police officers were gunned down as they were approaching what seemed to be a car theft in progress in Sarajevo’s Alipasino Polje neighbourhood.
The driver is reportedly one of those charged in an earlier crackdown on a large organised vehicle theft group, the police operation ‘Volan’.
One of the suspects who were detained is Slaven Dakic, his lawyer Belma Balijagic Dzuho confirmed to N1.
‘Volan’ is the largest investigation into vehicle theft in Bosnia until now, and involves an operation targeting four organised crime groups that police said stole vehicles in Canton Sarajevo, the Tuzla Canton, the Herzegovina-Neretva Canton and the West-Herzegovina Canton since 2011.
The indictment arising from the police operation charged 27 people from both of Bosnia’s semi-autonomous entities.
They allegedly hid more than 200 vehicles in the areas of Sarajevo, Lukavica, Pale and Sokolac. Prosecutors said that members of the group would then contact the owners of the vehicles and demand payment in exchange for returning them.
The defendants faced a judge in August, but a date for when their trial will begin has not yet been set.
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