14 arrested as INTERPOL Balkan Trigger seizes 52 kg marijuana
INTERPOL-led Operation Balkan Trigger deployed 5,000 officers across six Western Balkan countries on 17-19 April 2016 and arrested 14 people. Alongside firearms, explosives and ammunition, police recovered 52 kg of marijuana plus gold, cash and a stolen car.
🇧🇦 Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia (coordination hub in Sarajevo) · Bosnia and Herzegovina
Operation Balkan Trigger ran from 17 to 19 April 2016 across Bosnia and
Herzegovina, Croatia, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro,
Serbia and Slovenia.[1]Some 5,000 officers were deployed during the 48-hour
operation.[1]Police arrested 14 people during the operation targeting illicit
firearms in the Western Balkans.[1]Around 43,000 people were stopped at
border crossing points, transit routes and hot spots, with more than two million
checks against INTERPOL databases.[1]Officials from participating countries
worked from a coordination hub in Sarajevo, with a second hub at INTERPOL
headquarters in Lyon.[1]
Police recovered nearly 40 firearms, six kg of explosives, 11 hand grenades and
1,300 pieces of ammunition.[1]Police also recovered 52 kg of marijuana during
the operation.[1]Police also recovered 14.5 kg of gold and EUR 250,000 in
cash and identified a stolen car.[1]
INTERPOL said the operation was aimed at giving regional countries a base to
address weapons smuggling and providing a blueprint for other operations.[1]Information gathered will be analysed for links with other criminal or terrorist
activity, and seized weapons details were added to the iARMS firearms database.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
The incident date uses the operation end date of 19 April 2016; the source was published on 21 April 2016.
The 14 arrests cover the whole firearms operation and are not a cannabis-only count; no cannabis-specific arrest total was given.
No breakdown was published of where the 52 kg of marijuana was found among the six countries.
No names, charges or court outcomes were reported for those arrested.
Firearms, explosives, ammunition, gold, cash and the stolen car are mentioned only to explain the mixed operation and are excluded from cannabis figures.
Only the INTERPOL account could be opened; no second independent account of this operation was found.
A Sarajevo municipal court ordered one month in custody for Nemanja Gajić, whom state investigators SIPA arrested near Ilijaš on 6 November 2026 after finding about 35 kilograms of cannabis in his truck. Prosecutors said the drug was intended for street sale and sought the custody because he could repeat the offence.
Republika Srpska police reported seeing a person consume marijuana in a public place in Vlasenica and issuing a misdemeanour notice under Article 17 of the public-order law. The bulletin records one enforcement action, not a national arrest total or a criminal conviction.
On 18 September 2025 Tuzla canton drug police searched a car in Gradačac and then a home, yard and plot in Modriča used by N.K., seizing about 23 kg of suspected marijuana and seven two-metre cannabis stalks; the cantonal prosecutor ordered his detention for unauthorised production and trafficking.
SIPA reported 78.904 kg of marijuana/skank and 126 cannabis plants seized during 2023. Its all-drug trafficking work covered 68 cases and sixteen reports to prosecutors concerning 32 people, plus a supplementary report concerning three people.