A prosecutor has indicted three men who are suspected of being part of a lucrative smuggling operation that channeled heroin from Afghanistan to Western Europe, using Sarajevo as a warehouse and laundering millions of KM.
An indictment filed Monday by the Special Department for Organized Crime, Economic Crime and Corruption of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Prosecutor’s Office named Haris Zornić, formerly known as Ljutvija Dacić, his brother Hamdo Dacić and Turkish businessman Acik Can, according to the Prosecutor’s Office press release.
The indictment says the three men laundered between 5 million and 6 million KM. Can is also charged with illegal procurement and possession of a firearm and ammunition.
Also named in the complaint was the company Majorka from Sarajevo, which is owned by Zornić and Can. According to a prosecutor, the arrests were based in part on findings of foreign law enforcement agencies, including in Montenegro, Germany, Slovenia, Spain and Italy.
Zornić, 40, and Dacić, 35, were born in Rožaje and have BiH and Montenegrin citizenship. Can, 38, was born in Bietigheimu, Germany and holds Turkish and Serbian citizenship with a temporary residence permit in BiH.
All three have been held in custody since February when they were arrested in Sarajevo.
The Center for Investigative Reporting in Sarajevo (CIN) published a story in February this year about the Dacićis and their Turkish partner outlining their role in building Hotel Exclusive in the Sarajevo township of Rajlovac, purportedly with money made in drug trade.
The Dacić brothers have been under the police scrutiny for years, and were arrested back in the 1990s for drug trade.
Hamdija Dacić was arrested in November 1999 at the border crossing of Gorica between Slovenia and Italy and charged with carrying 12.75 kilograms of heroin. He was sentenced to eight years in prison, but escaped a year later from an Italian prison.
In 2002 Sarajevo police arrested him, but Dacić could not be extradited to Italy because of BiH laws.
Hamdija’s brother Ljutvija took the surname of his wife’s family in 2001 and changed his first name to Haris. Then, he became the owner of Majorka, which among other things owns Hotel Exclusive in Rajlovac. An expert assessor has estimated the hotel’s value to close to 5.9 million KM.
According to the police operational data, the Dacić network repackaged drugs in one restaurant near Vogošća. From there the product was transported to Western Europe. Police allege that the Dacić brothers were involved in the transport of several kilograms of various drugs, which Croatian police and customs officers uncovered in January 2006 on a bus that was traveling from BiH to Germany.
