The officials stated that in the final phase of this operation, police from these countries, supported by Europol, the European policing organization, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration conducted raids on the night of Wednesday, May 30, 2018, in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Slovenia.

Officials said that the operation against the so called Balkan Cartel was launched after the Croatian police discovered a cell belonging to the gang last year in Zagreb. Since Croatia’s investigation began last year, raids have also taken place in Germany and Austria.

Goran Laus of Croatia’s drug crime police service told a press conference that Dino Muzaferovic was one of 37. He is a Bosnian, who was arrested last December in Germany and then transferred to Italy where he has been sentenced to four years for drug trafficking.

Laus reported that Muzaferovic was believed to be in charge of the cartel, and had run it from behind bars.

Tihomir Miic, Muzaferovic’s lawyer in a separate case in Croatia against him, responded to the newspaper Jutarnji List: "Dino is detained for over a year and he is in prison overseas so it is uncertain how the allegations that he ran the alleged criminal organization may stand."

There was no immediate comment from the lawyers or representatives of those other people detained.

Laus stated that 14 of the 37 arrestees were Bosnians. Eleven Croats and eight Slovenians. Two Serbs. One German, one Turk.

In a press release about the raids the Office for Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime in Croatia said that it had ordered an investigation of 22 people accused of criminal acts of criminal associations for the unauthorised production and sale of drugs and the illegal possession, manufacture and purchase of explosives and firearms.

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