https://sarajevotimes.com/due-to-unadopted-european-regulations-bih-has-become-a-training-ground-for-money-laundering/

Bosnia and Herzegovina – a country of spectacular police actions and arrests of suspects for organized crime, which rarely result in convictions. Will the extensive action carried out by SIPA at the behest of the Prosecutor’s Office of Bosnia and Herzegovina have the same outcome? In the action codenamed Black Tie 2, 23 people were detained, while detention was ordered for only three of them. The action is connected to the international drug cartel Tito and Dino, whose leader is Edin Gačanin, who is on the American blacklist. This is just one example that shows that our country is a fertile ground for all kinds of crime.

The absence of a transport corridor that would connect our country with the EU countries is not an obstacle for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s space on the international drug route to be one of the key transit points to Western Europe. The recent extensive action supported by Europol does not actually indicate new trends but a more agile fight against organized crime.

“It is not the first time that Bosnia and Herzegovina has been mentioned, and this shows that the security services, the Prosecutor’s Office and the Security Agency of Bosnia and Herzegovina can deal with this problem. We see that it is a significant help from the FBI, DEA and other American and European services, which help our security services in the realization of these tasks”, says Nedžad Korajlić, a professor at the Faculty of Criminology, Criminology and Security Studies at UNSA.

According to the seizures, speed and cocaine are the most sought after on the Balkan market. Profits from the sale of narcotics are most often laundered by buying real estate, for which the origin of the property is not required. Bosnia and Herzegovina, with laws that do not sufficiently regulate this type of market, is a serious training ground for money laundering.

“It is used as a tool to put illegal money obtained from drugs into legal flows and markets, and this is mainly done through construction activities. We should also not forget the purchase of expensive apartments, real estate, cars and other assets”, says Armin Kržalić, professor at the Faculty of Criminology, Criminology and Security Studies at UNSA.

“Necessarily, one phenomenon cannot survive without the other, because all the dirty money earned from drugs must be put into legal flows. There is no country that is not and cannot be the subject of money laundering. Due to its unadopted European regulations, Bosnia and Herzegovina represents a much better potential for laundering than some other country”, explains Sandi Dizdarević, professor of criminal psychology.

For an effective fight against organized crime, in addition to technical and human capacities, a professional management staff is needed to manage the work of security agencies – this is the assessment of the profession.

“It’s only a matter of will and desire, and that leads us to the question of staffing – the question of all questions – placing managers, leaders in security positions, in responsible positions because they are the ones who should initiate responsible work for what they were appointed for, that is, to reach their goal”, notes Kržalić.

“If politics elects the members of the Independent Board, and they in turn appoint the first people of the police agencies, then there is a clear causal connection between these phenomena,” Dizdarević points out.

BH territory has long been recognized as a neuralgic point of the migrant route due to our geographical position, which is not insignificant even for cross-border organized crime, especially for the distribution of narcotics, which is why closer cooperation of police agencies at the international level is increasingly important, Federalna writes.