Officers of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) arrested six people in Bihać after raiding three locations in a migrant-smuggling investigation, SIPA said Tuesday. Acting on orders from the State Court and under the supervision of the state prosecutor’s office, officers searched homes, outbuildings and vehicles and seized evidence tied to suspected smuggling and forming a criminal group.
Four Pakistani nationals and two Bosnian citizens were taken into custody and transferred to the state prosecutor’s office after questioning. The Pakistani nationals will be handed over to the Foreigners’ Affairs Service within the legal deadline. Officers also found 50 migrants of various nationalities whom the group allegedly planned to move into neighboring Croatia, and investigators believe the network smuggled more than 300 migrants in the past month.
The case highlights continuing pressure along the Western Balkan route, one of the EU’s busiest corridors for irregular migration, with Europol previously warning of rising smuggling activity along the Bosnia–Croatia–Slovenia pathway.
