Operation Catering: Police raids across Sarajevo and Central Bosnia cantons target organized crime

According to the Sarajevo Canton Interior Ministry, the objective of the operation is to document criminal offences of unauthorized drug trafficking, extortion, causing public general danger, and other unlawful activities. The investigation encompasses more than ten individuals, with searches of facilities and motor vehicles used by suspects underway at more than twenty locations.

Among those reportedly detained are Adnan Maglic, an associate of Admir Arnautovic, also known as Smrk, along with Anel Sejfovic, known as Pele. The Prosecutor's Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina previously filed an indictment against Admir Arnautovic and Adnan Maglic on August 12, charging them with organizing a network for international drug and weapon smuggling from 2019 to 2022. According to the indictment, the group smuggled cocaine and hashish throughout Bosnia and the European Union, and they are also charged with planning an attack against singer Senidah with the intent to inflict severe bodily injuries.

The illegally acquired proceeds were invested by Arnautovic and Maglic into vehicles, real property, and other assets, registered in their own names or the names of close associates. Both men were previously legally convicted of drug-related crimes under an indictment from 2013, with Arnautovic spending nine months in detention during 2022 and 2023 before being subjected to restrictive measures. Anel Sejfovic is likewise known to police and judicial authorities, having been arrested in July 2022 alongside Elvis Keljmendi and Ajlin Ahmic during the action code-named Rez, where the Prosecutor's Office linked them to an organized group procuring and distributing narcotics across Bosnia and Herzegovina and several regional and European Union countries based on evidence from the Sky application.

The Catering operation unfolds across multiple locations in Sarajevo Canton as well as the Central Bosnia Canton, where property belonging to an individual with the initials A.M. was searched in Travnik. According to the Central Bosnia Canton Interior Ministry, early morning orders issued by the Sarajevo Court were executed by Sarajevo Canton police officers with assistance from special and criminal police units. A search was conducted at a house, yard, and outbuildings utilized by A.M., born in 1963, in Travnik on Polje Slavka Gavrancica Street.

Additionally, Mithat Asotic, a physician, private clinic owner, and professor at a private pharmaceutical and health faculty in Travnik, was arrested in the Central Bosnia Canton alongside his son Hamza Asotic. The precise connection between Dr. Asotic and the detained drug traffickers remains unclear at this time, though media reports indicate he was detained on suspicion of committing the criminal offense of extortion.