By Ljiljana Kovacevic for Southeast European Times in Banja Luka -- 25/10/11
[Internal Affairs Ministry of Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina]
Their job was to serve the public. Instead, authorities allege, 21 persons arrested in a police operation last month were conspiring with criminal gangs.
Operation Grand was carried out on the order of BiH's state prosecutor in an effort to combat smuggling of high-tariff goods. The detained persons include three border police officers, a member of the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA) and a tax collector.
"According to evidence gathered so far, the suspects were engaged for a long time in smuggling of various types of high-tariff goods, mostly cigarettes, defrauding the BiH and its budget for sums that ran into millions," Prosecutor's Office Spokesperson Boris Grubesic told SETimes.
It was the latest in a string of such operations touted by authorities as evidence they are making progress in the battle against corruption. According to Republika Srpksa, what authorities have uncovered so far has been sobering.
"Every major police operation aimed at breaking up organized crime finds a number of customs or police officers within the criminal clan," Republika Srpska police chief Gojko Vasic told SETimes. "They undermine society regardless of whether at a local, entity, state or even regional level."
Corrupt police officers are immensely valuable to the crime gangs as they provide early warning to those under investigation, he said. But going after such individuals, Vasic said, isn't enough.
Rather, authorities must target the gangs which recruit them.
"The most effective way to fight corrupt police and security agency officials is by processing large criminal groups, because those who are involved in crime are eliminated from the system," Vasic said. "This way we also act preventively towards young people who are just becoming police and customs officers so that they do not to think that crime pays and that criminals are smarter than the system."
According to Transparency International director Srdjan Blagovchanin, Operation Grand and similar stings may generate headlines and give the impression that authorities are tackling the problem. But in reality, he said, these are only the tip of the iceberg.
"We see that such actions occur sporadically and net only low-ranking officials and civil servants. In BiH there is no action which exposes the top of the chain of organized crime and corruption, the leaders of the pyramid under whose auspices these things happen," Blagovchanin told SETimes.
"A positive development is that EU changed its strategy towards the Western Balkans, putting the issue of justice and prosecution of persons involved in crime and corruption high on the priority list," he added.
In the scheme uncovered by Operation Grand case, border police turned a blind eye to trucks bringing in cigarettes at a pre-arranged time, allowing them to enter without customs or excise taxes.
The same scheme was employed by another organized crime group involved in smuggling coffee from Croatia to BiH. Republika Srpska police official Miroslav Crnchevic was arrested in that operation for allegedly participating in the plot.
Source: SETimes.com
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