Serbian, Croatian MUPs stage Operation Transporter

ZAGREB -- Serbia and Croatia have busted an international ring of car smugglers, reports said on Thursday.

The police forces of the two neighboring countries collaborated in Operation Transporter, which kicked off in May, to arrest a total of 41 people involved in stealing and smuggling cars, trucks and buses, authorities in Zagreb announced yesterday.

Police investigations had revealed that an organized group, led by Zagreb-born Zoran Petrović, had been operating in the Croatian capital and eastern Slavonia, near the border with Serbia.

A chase that Zagreb police conducted in the city streets on Tuesday, when Petrović sustained a gunshot wound, was a part of an arrest operation related to the case.

The group had for years been involved in car theft, which had included passenger and freight vehicles and buses. Some of the stolen cars had ended up in Serbia to be sold by a local gang that cooperated with Petrović's group.

The Croatian MUP yesterday filed criminal charges against 14 people, five Croatian and nine Serbian nationals.

The charges include 24 counts of robbery, theft, blackmail, attempted blackmail and joint criminal enterprise to steal 21 vehicles.

Police managed to recover nine trucks, two buses and one car.

The damages incurred to the victims of the smuggling ring exceed EUR 1.6mn.