Police in Mostar arrested four people after officers raided a laboratory for growing marijuana, as announced at a 4 July press conference.[1] Those arrested were two men, one of them a German citizen, and two women, and the police report was submitted to the competent HNK prosecutor’s office.[1] Police identified those held only by initials as B.Ć. born in 1998 with dual German and Bosnian citizenship, Z.D. born in 1992, E.H. born in 2000 and K.P.[2] Police filed a crime report against the two men with the competent prosecutor’s office in Mostar, while the two women remained under investigation.[2] Police said the arrested people were previously unknown to the police and had no prior convictions.[1]
The operation, codenamed Lab, was carried out on 2 and 3 July by the Department for Special Purposes of the HNK Interior Ministry with the Mostar Police Administration intervention group and criminal police, under a Mostar Municipal Court order.[1] At three locations inspectors found a laboratory with sophisticated equipment and seized 444 cannabis stems, two automatic rifles and cultivation equipment and material.[1] Officers searched three sites in the Sjever, Stari grad and Jug areas of Mostar, where one equipped laboratory had not been put into operation before the raid.[2] Alongside the 444 cannabis stems, officers seized two automatic rifles, bottles with seeds and all material for growing, protecting and feeding small seedlings.[2] Of the 444 stems, 198 were seedlings up to 30 centimetres in pots and 246 were cut or adult plants in the final production stage.[2]
Police described it as one of the largest drug seizures in the recent period in Bosnia and Herzegovina.[1] Police had not established the value of the seized drugs and growing equipment when the results were announced.[2] Police said further investigation would establish the value of the confiscated drugs and equipment, how long the group had been active and how much it had produced and sold.[1]
