The Republic of Srpska

The Republic of Srpska Ministry of the Interior participated in the international operation called ‘Falkuša’, directed against parts of the Balkans drug cartel specialized for providing ‘services’ of trafficking larger amounts of narcotic drugs (mostly cocaine) by using sailing boats and yachts. From the beginning of 2020, the Spanish Guardia Civil, French Customs Service and Croatian Police, had jointly implemented ‘Falkuša’ at international level.             In the morning of 8 September 2020, in international waters, upon obtaining the consent of the competent bodies of the Republic of Croatia, the special team of Guardia Civil intercepted and boarded a Croatian sailing boat where there were three Croatian citizens as crew members. The sailing boat was then anchored at Canary Islands, Kingdom of Spain.             After that, the search of the sailing boat was performed and the total amount of 980 kg of cocaine was found whose value on streets was more than 40 million euros. Simultaneously with arresting the Croatian citizens and the search of the sailing boat, the searches on three addressed in the Republic of Croatia were also initiated. As a result, several computers and mobile phones were found and seized.             Similarly to numerous cases in the past, this is also the case which proved that international police and agency cooperation in real time have no alternative in countering organized criminal groups, such as ‘the Balkans Cartel’.