At the today's press conference, the representatives of the General Police Directorate and the Ljubljana and Celje police directorates presented to the public the results of several successfully concluded criminal investigations in which they uncovered the activities of several criminal associations and arrested several suspects who smuggled illegal drugs.
Those involved are members of well organised criminal associations which are connecting themselves not only in Slovenia, but also on international scale.
The police uncovered a total of 26 criminal offences in the field of illegal drug abuse and filed complaints against 21 suspects on the grounds of reasonable suspicion that they had committed criminal offences. On the basis of orders issued by the court, they carried out 40 different investigations and seized in Slovenia a total amount of 5,659 g of heroin, 1,130.65 g of cocaine and 5,000 g of marihuana, the value of which on the black market is more than 300,000 euro at retail prices. Because of the existence of the grounds for detention, the investigating judge issued a pre-trial detention order for 13 suspects.
With the successes presented today as well as with recent successes in this field, the Slovenian police achieved significant results in combating international organised crime, which were noticed not only in Slovenia but also abroad, and have tus contributed significantly to common security in this area.
Participants in the press conference from left to right: Head of Criminal Police Section at the Ljubljana PD, Branko Japelj, Head of the Crime Police Section at the Celje PD Jože Senica, and Slavko Koroš, Head of the Organised Crime Police Section in CPD at the GPD.
Criminal investigation carried out by the Ljubljana PD
On 12 May, criminal investigators from Ljubljana arrested during a comprehensive police operation the following persons:
- 31-year-old citizen of Macedonia with residence in the area of Ljubljana,
- 24-year-old citizen of Slovenia with residence in the area of Ljubljana,
- 23-year-old citizen of Macedonia with residence in the area of Ljubljana,
- 23-year-old citizen of Slovenia with residence in the area of Ljubljana,
and filed criminal complaints against these persons and additionally against:
- 23-year-old citizen of Macedonia with residence in the area of Ljubljana,
- 34-year-old citizen of Macedonia with residence in the area of Ljubljana,
- 22-year-old citizen of Serbia with residence in the area of Ljubljana,
- 24-year-old citizen of Slovenia with residence in the area of Ljubljana, and
- 22-year-old citizen of Macedonia with residence in Radovljica.
Head of Criminal Police Section at the Ljubljana PD Branko Japelj
In addition, criminal investigators carried out several house searches on persons who on 19 December last year broke in into the petrol service on Zaloška cesta in Ljubljana, from where they took 3,418 vignettes, a number of telephone cards, cigarettes and cash in total value of 150,286.98 euro. The organised criminal association used the acquired money for financing "businesses" for transportation of illegal drugs from Macedonia to Slovenia and then to Austria and Switzerland. The police have established that the suspects cooperated with a 22-year-old female citizen of Serbia with residence in the area of Ljubljana, who at the time of burglary was working at the petrol station and who also made the burglary possible by not turning on the alarm system.
Criminal investigators had been monitoring the activities of the suspects already from the last November, and to this end also cooperated with the Austrian security authorities. In a joint investigation, the Austrian and Slovenian security authorities established that the internationally organised criminal association organised several transports of heroin from Slovenia to Austria.
In the scope of the investigation of the organised criminal association, criminal investigators seized almost 1 kilogram of cocaine and about 2.5 kg of heroin in total value around 40,000 euro.
The joint police operation in the area of Ljubljana involved more than 50 police officers and criminal investigators, police officers of the Special Unit and several police dog handlers with sniffer dogs searching for illegal drugs.
Criminal investigation carried out by the Celje PD
On 12 May 2009, criminal investigators from Celje, in cooperation with criminal investigators and police officers of the Ljubljana PD and Murska Sobota PD, concluded a comprehensive criminal investigation of criminal offences of illegal manufacturing of and trafficking in drugs. They filed criminal complaints against twelve persons for fourteen criminal offences; from these twelve suspects, seven were Slovenian citizens, others were citizens from Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Algeria, Ukraine, while one was a stateless person.
Head of the Crime Police Section at the Celje PD Jože Senica
The Celje criminal investigators started this comprehensive investigation, in which members of special police and Special Unit were also involved, in September last year.
Slavko Koroš, Head of the Organised Crime Police Section in CPD at the GPD
Suspects smuggled larger quantities of heroin to Slovenia from Kosovo over the so-called Balkan route and then supplied dealers througout Slovenia.
In the whole investigation, 3,139 g of heroin, 150 g cocaine, and 5.800 g of cannabis were seized.
In drug smuggling, the central Balkan route that leads over Slovenia and over which international criminal associations smuggle the various goods (drugs, arms, explosive, people, highly taxable goods, ...) is becoming more and more important. In smuggling, they use a variety of methods, such as are smuggling over the "green border", use of tempered or falsified documents, hiding of objects in specially adjusted bunkers or hollow parts of vehicles.