Operation NANA was led by the Croatian Police and the Rijeka State Prosecutor’s Office together with authorities from Colombia, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Panama, Slovenia and Spain, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and Europol.[1] An organised crime group was dismantled and nine suspects were arrested on 8 March in a major operation spanning Europe and South America.[1] The nine suspects were arrested on an international final action day carried out simultaneously in Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands and Slovenia.[1] Those arrested included a Croatian high value target and a representative of a Colombian drug trafficking organisation who coordinated cocaine shipments to criminals based in Europe.[1] A contemporaneous police account put the number then arrested at eight, comprising six Croats, one Spanish national and one dual Bosnia and Herzegovina-Netherlands national.[2]
A container ship legally carrying scrap metal from Panama to the port of Rijeka, Croatia, was found to be transporting more than 100 kilograms of cocaine and 150 kilograms of marijuana destined for the Croatian illicit drugs market.[1] The cocaine in Rijeka seaport was hidden in a shipping container holding 20 tonnes of mixed metal waste.[2] Croatia’s Interior Ministry said about 150 kilograms of marijuana and 69,000 boxes of smuggled cigarettes had been seized earlier within the same police operation.[2]
Over the year-long operation investigators identified several major Europe-based drug traffickers as well as a Colombian source of supply.[1] The operation formed part of a broader European strategy driven by Croatia and supported by European law enforcement authorities, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and Europol against the Western Balkan organised crime network known as the Balkan cartel.[1]
