Six Croatian nationals, suspected of forgery and illegal sale of Croatian passports, were taken into custody in Zagreb on Saturday morning, and an international warrant was issued for the arrest of a Serbian national suspected of the same crime.
The six suspects -- two police officers, a Croatian Interior Ministry employee, two staff members from the Croatian Consulate in the northeastern Bosnian city of Tuzla, and another individual -- are to be questioned by prosecutors within the next 16 hours, according to Interior Ministry spokeswoman Jelena Bikic.
They are suspected of involvement in the forgery and illegal distribution of Croatian passports, some of which ended up in the hands of Serbian and Montenegrin criminals, including members of the Zemun Clan.
A police investigation found that they had sold 50 Croatian passports from 2006 to 2010.
According to reports, original Croatian passports with the stolen identity of other persons were sold at prices reportedly ranging between 10,000 and 50,000 euros, however this has not been officially confirmed as neither the police nor the Chief State Prosecutor's Office wanted to disclose any details.
Apart from the six suspects, a Serbian citizen and another suspect, whose identity has not yet been established, are believed to have been involved.
The police are continuing their probe to establish whether any other people were involved.
Croatia's Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs is fully interested in shedding light on all irregularities regarding the issuing of Croatian passports in Croatia's embassy and consulates in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the ministry's spokesman Berislav Zivkovic told the press.
Therefore the foreign ministry will actively cooperate with the responsible agencies in Croatia in efforts to establish all the facts regarding this case, the spokesman said, declining further comment.
In recent years, Croatian documents have been found on people suspected of international crime. The latest such case was reported in February when Serbian underworld figures Luka Bojovic, Vladimir Milisavljevic and Sinisa Petric were arrested in Spain with Croatian documents on them. Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said then that he expected that it would be clarified soon how these and other Serbian mobsters had obtained Croatian passports.
