A four-member group suspected of attempting to kill journalist Dusan Miljus and entrepreneur Josip Galinec in 2008 was arrested yesterday as part of an operation codenamed Shock 3, the Interior Ministry said on Thursday.
The ministry said the operation was launched yesterday and that the four persons arrested were remanded in custody today for another 24 hours.
The media said last night that special police arrested four men in Zagreb's Knezija neighbourhood in connection with brutal street assaults on Miljus, a report for Jutarnji List daily who has been covering crime for years, and Galinec.
Miljus was assaulted with bats by two persons in front of his home on 2 June 2008, while Galinec was beaten with metal bats the following September 17 at a parking lot near the Economy Ministry. Asked after the assault if it was linked to the possible racketeering of the Industrogradnja company, Galinec said "absolutely."
The media speculate that one of those arrested is former police officer Djordje Vuletic, who was one of the accused in a late 1990s high-profile trial against a criminal organisation.
Operation Shock 3 follows Shock 1, launched in December 2008, when six persons from the Zagreb underworld were arrested and a large quantity of weapons was found, and Shock 2, launched in April 2009, when flats and offices of a number of persons connected to the criminal world were searched.
