Gang trafficking K. Albanians arrested

28 February 2011 | 14:59 | Source: Tanjug

BELGRADE -- Seven members of an organized criminal group suspected of illegal border crossings and human trafficking were arrested by Serbian police. Serbia's Interior Minister Ivica Dačić told Tanjug that the group is also suspected of smuggling 18 Kosovo Albanians, including nine children. Fifteen of them drowned while trying to cross the Tisa River on October 14, 2009. According to Dačić, after more than a year of work, the police arrested the group's organizer Josip Đurašević and members Atila Sipos, Joso Karimović, Goran Maravić, Jovanka Koledin, all from the town of Subotica in northern Serbia, as well as Abedin and Ardin Iseni from Bujanovac, in the south of the country. The operation was carried out by the Directorate for Fighting Organized Crime, in cooperation with the Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office, the Gendarmerie and the Kikinda Police Administration, Dačić said. "The smuggling chain saw a lot of traffic, with several dozen illegal migrants smuggled into Hungary every month. They were first transported from Kosovo to Končulj, and then to Subotica, where they were hidden," Dačić said. He specified that they would then be smuggled into Hungary when the chance arose, across the Tisa and the Horgoš and Kelebija border crossings. Dačić said that during the operation the police used information obtained in cooperation with Hungary and Austria, organized through the regional SECI center in Bucharest.