Europol

A series of raids carried out simultaneously across Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium and Germany on May 24 resulted with the arrest of "37 members of a highly violent criminal cell from the Western Balkans," Europe's law enforcement agency, Europol, stated on Friday. 

Montenegrin Special State Prosecutor Vladimir Novovic (L), Police Director Zoran Brdjanin (M) and Special Police Department Predrag Sukovic (R) in Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro

The government appointed two new interim police directors, Nikola Terzic and Predrag Sukovic, who will be in charge of contact with the European police agency Europol.

Montenegrin Interior Minister Filip Adzic (L) and Prime Minister Dritan Abazovic (R) inspecting special police units. Photo: Government of Montenegro

The EU will direct 600 million euros to strengthen Bulgariua's border with Turkey. This was announced on the Bulgarian national Television by the Chief Secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Commissioner Petar Todorov.

Applying the classification to the nine ports in the Balkans [see below], criminal networks lead the way with a presence in five of the nine: Koper in Slovenia, Rijeka and Ploce in Croatia, Varna in Bulgaria and Constanta in Romania. Mafia-style groups are active in Bar and Albania's Durres. Foreign actors are busy in Greek ports in Athens and Thessaloniki.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Bulgaria has blocked about 50,000 IP addresses and 500 domains from Russia and Belarus, from which hacker attacks were attempted. This was announced by Deputy Interior Minister Tanya Raycheva during an informal meeting of the Council "Justice and Internal Affairs".

Former president of the Montenegrin Supreme Court Vesna Medenica at a press conference. Photo: PR Centar

In the transcripts of the conversations using the encrypted messaging application Sky ECC, Milos Medenica claimed his mother was aware of their illegal business and said that they can expect protection from her.

Media reported that she was arrested for abuse of office.

Darko Saric, allegedly a major Serbian drugs trafficker, was arrested on Thursday morning at his wife's villa in Belgrade's upmarket suburb of Senjak as part of an international operation coordinated by EUROPOL and EUROJUST, the EU's agencies for law enforcement and criminal justice cooperation.

A statement from the Ministry of the Interior reads that, in addition to ari, 5 other people were arrested, who are suspected of being members of an organized criminal group.

The specialized prosecutor's office is initiating pre-trial proceedings to investigate an international organized criminal group set up to commit financial fraud, the investigation said. Under the prosecution's leadership, an international joint investigation team has been set up between Germany, Serbia, Greece and Bulgaria.