Predrag Mihovec (right) met with Nacional’s reporter in a secret location and uncovered how the the drug trafficking ring operatesSeveral days ago, Nacional received exclusive information on how the international drug trafficking chain operates which, seemingly, imports at least 400 kilograms of cocaine into Croatia every month. This information was delivered to Nacional by Predrag Mihovec, a man from Zagreb who has been running from the police since 12 January. He recently delivered letters to Nacional’s editorial office where he describes how the organization functions and made claims that the international drug smugglers are connected to some SOA officials and the police.

In the letters, he states that the drugs enter Croatia pressed into the sides of suitcases, carried by runners who receive €10,000 for the job. The drugs are hidden so well they can’t even be discovered by police dogs; because of that, the maximum amount that can be brought in is 3 kg per suitcase. The contents of the letters uncover that the drugs also arrive in Croatia in containers mixed with other goods which are imported by some Croatian companies, actually serving as paravans for drug trafficking. Mihovec claims that these containers arrive to the Croatian ports in Rijeka and Split, and that they are then controlled by SOA agents. Then they open the containers, take the drugs and reseal them; the drugs are not registered but are forwarded to the black market.

In the letters, Mihovec wrote that some SOA agents, together with a group of Croatians from South America not familiar to him, intended to traffic 200 kg of cocaine in February and that similar activities most likely happen every two weeks. If this is correct, then only that group of smugglers delivers 400 kg of cocaine every month. In his letters, Mihovec listed the names of the people he knows who he claims traffic drugs with several SOA agents; he also wrote how they operate, through which companies, and how he discovered this information. Mihovec wrote: “The main player and organizer is Branko T., called the Cat, originally from Posusje, but living in Zagreb. He used Dalibor R.’s passport, a man born in Vinkovci, who I believe had never travelled, let alone by airplane. This passport is predominantly used when travelling or purchasing tickets to South America. Apart from drug trafficking, they also sell vehicles that are owned by leasing companies, gathering false documents for these vehicles, establish companies to fraud leasing houses, and gather goods and loans for fictive employees.

In Germany, where his wife and childe live, there are courts for embezzlement and similar criminal acts, which he avoids by sending falsified medical documentation from here. Nenad P., the son-in-law of a restaurant owner at Zagreb’s Fair, is the person in charge of communicating with the officials. He received the other passport from them, and they take care of all problems connected to the police; they are so connected that they even tell him where his mistres is going via telephone, which is saddening for us tax payers. Together with the officials, they are planning or have already transferred approximately 200 kg of cocaine to Rijeka or Split, for which Branko T. has spent the past two months quickly gathering money. The entrance system will be as follows: the goods (bananas and such) enter the harbour for a specific company; the goods are taken over by SOA agents who are in charge of controlling the containers; on the way to Zagreb, they take the drugs; then they reseal the container and deliver it to the importer. Or the second system: the container enters Split, if there are no police (the informant is a customs officer, I think Branko T.’s cousin) they take the drugs, and the container has entrance papers for BiH and fictively crosses the border. The goods enter the country in import papers issued for Lectus, Jopa Tim and other companies, which are used for economic fraud, while the directors are in Serbia or BiH. These were mostly people with dual citizenship.

House in Miroševec where police found 400 g of heroin which they connect to Predrag MihovecAll profits from this scam were invested in the drugs that should have arrived. It is possible that the goods arrived on the import papers of another company, now it is only important to supervise all goods that will be registered for customs from South America over the next month or two, and for which SOA will be interested or will do the final control. Attention must be paid because the drugs are, for example, pressed in coal, wood or similar, so it is difficult for dogs to detect them. The drugs constantly arrive every 15 days and are packed in the edges of the suitcases; these drugs pass all control with this packaging, but are limited to 3 kg at a time. Runners carry these suitcases who receive €10,000 per package. Most of these runners are Germans who are recruited by Toni. Besides Croatia, they also do this in other EU countries.

Branko T.’s mistress Antonija, born in Cakovec, brought the drugs into the country in the same fashion. She is responsible for 4 kg of heroin which she drove into Germany in July together with Branko T.; because the package was soaked with gasoline, they returned the drugs to Croatia, and sold them on the streets of Zagreb. In August or September, she went alone to Caracas, Venezuela, to pick up the cocaine and returned via Paris. After her, German N.N. flew to Caracas with tickets purchased in Generalturist in Gajeva Street in October. This can all be verified via airline tickets, telephone calls and Western Union payments to the names of Branko T., Antonija, Dalibor R. and certainly N.N., who was the connection in Bogotá from the period of June to November. She is currently arguing with Branko T. over money. I believe that, if she would receive witness protection, she could, in detail, describe his operations because she met his connections in Columbia; she could also describe the methods used to avoid customs there, the packaging methods, runners, and buyers in the EU and Croatia. The individual responsible for organizing operations connected to drugs, establishing fictive companies and well as falsifying documents in Croatia is Aurel M. from Koprivnica. He, instead of Branko T., pays the runners, finds directors and false employees for the companies, and transports stolen cars or machines owned by leasing companies to the small border crossing to BiH… There is also A.M., who sells heroin in Zagreb for Branko T., and is protected by Kresimir A., a police from the narcotics department in Heinzelova Steet, who receives money and other gifts from him. Kresimir A. has a system that those who pay him can work, and the others are jailed based on information provided by his dealers in prison; this way his colleagues have a bigger market, and he becomes the most trophied police officer in the precinct.”

Mihovec claims that Branko T. and Aurel M. did some of their illegal operations through a company with its headquarters on Avenija Dubrava in Zagreb. He delivered a printout to Nacional of all telephone calls made in December 2006 for two commercial telephone numbers which he claims Branko T. and Aurel M. used. Mihovec claims that Aurel M. used the mobile telephone number 091 147 7441, and Branko T. used 091 147 7443. From this printout, it is clear that the telephones belonged to a company with its headquarters on Avenija Dubrava in Zagreb, and that the persons using these mobile telephones often called one another, as well as individuals using mobile telephone numbers in Venezuela, Turkey, Germany, Italy, BiH, Serbia and Slovenia. From the printout, it is clear that the individuals using these mobile telephones also called 091 530 6110, which Mihovec claims is used by Nenad P., their apparent connection to SOA.

Mihovec sent this letter to Nacional containing this information primarily because he recently has found himself in serious problems. The police recently found 400 g of heroin in the back building at his place of residence, and the police suspected that Mihovec is the person who smuggled and sold the drugs. An investigation was launched and an all-points bulletin was issued. Mihovec claims that he is a victim of planted evidence by the police; that is why he has decided to publicly tell his side of the story. Over the first several weeks, he tried to deliver his information to the authorities and make his position more clear after the police connected him to to 400 g of heroin. However, SOA agents told the person who delivered the letters that this was not enough, and that they could not do anything to try to stop this. It is possible that they are not ready to trust Mihovec, or negotiate with him due to the situation that he is currently in. However, it seems that because of the situation Mihovec is in, he really does not want to lie.

Mihovec’s problems were published in Jutarnji List on 15 January. In the article published in Jutarnji list wrote that on 12 January, the police knocked on the door of his house on Severi Street in Zagreb’s Mirosevec neighbourhood and found 400 g of heroin. In the same article, it stated that Mihovec ran away from the house before the police arrived, and that his family members who live in the same house were released by the police after they were interrogated at the station. Jutarnji list also published that Mihovec was connected to other people who they believed to be a part of the criminal minion – Januz Dervishi and Pero Atliji. Dervishi was arrested in September 2006 under extortion charges. The deceased Krasniqi was connected to drug dealing and extorting by the security services; a car bomb went off in front of Atliji’s Dubrava home in 2003, and he was arrested and suspected of drug dealing in 2004.

In the Jutarnji List article, there are claims that Mihovec is well known to the police who had previously connected him to loansharking and extortion, but not directly to drug use. Apart from the information that drugs were found in Mihovec’s home, no other details of the police action are known to the public.

Mihovec met with the author of this article on 15 January, on the day that Jutarnji List published their article. At that time, he told his short version of the events, but asked Nacional not to publish his story for some time. He said that he would first try to negotiate with the authorized government institution and offer them information to assist them in uncovering the well organized international drug trafficking ring. If his information would prove true, he would ask to be released of all charges for the possession of heroin that they found at his residence. He believes that it would be easier for the government institution to believe that the heroin found at his address was actually planted by an individual involved in the international drug trafficking ring, whom he loaned money to previously.

The letter in which he described the events that occurred on the day the police found 400 grams of heroin went like this: ˝It is all a question of honour! You know, ‘real’ players don’t enter conflicts easily, because they stick to their work and respect others. That’s the case with me, I try to stick to the rules, I am good to those who are good to me, but when someone screws me over, I do it right back. I will tell you my story so that it can be heard, so that you have something to read while drinking coffee, without any regard as to whether you believe me or not. My really battle will begin when this article is forgotten. I know many of you will say, who cares, he’s a bad guy too, and he is like this or that. Yes, you are right, but I am not stupid, at least not stupid enough to let something like this happen to me.”

Mihovec claims that on Friday, 12 January, at 19:00, his brother called him on his mobile and said that the police arrived at his home with a search warrant; he normally does not live there, but his brother lives there with his mother. His brother asked if he was going to come home, and he thought for a short while and said that he would come home in 30 minutes because he had nothing to worry about. Mihovec writes: “But, after ten minutes my brother calls and puts Kresšo A. from the narcotics division on the telephone, who is hysterically asking me to come to the house. This was not something I was suspicious about, but the same conversation was repeated again ten minutes later and I saw that Kreso was getting more anxious about my absence; I then decided to send my lawyer, and hide until I uncovered the background of the entire situation.”

Mihovec wrote that the search began and his attorney arrived 20 minutes later. He claims that the police searched his parent’s new house for only 20 minutes, even though the house has two floors and a basement full of tools, closets and various items. Mihovec writes: “After the search was ‘apparently’ completed, the team gathered in the living room and informed Kreso A. that nothing was found, but then he stood up and said: ‘Now I’ll go!’ He went to the old house and he pulled out several bags totalling 400 grams of heroin from under the old basement window of the house where no one lives. A damn great place to hide drugs. You have to be a real idiot to keep drugs at home with so many orchards and so much forest around you. Just to point out, my fingerprints were not found on the bags, and the drugs could have been anyone’s in the house (why me, maybe my grandmother opened a business).”

Mihovec claims that the police in Heinzelova Street then celebrated with champagne. He says that his 60 year old mother was a witness to everything that happened, who no one has ever said anything bad about and who lives from her 2500 kuna salary. Witnesses to this event suspected that something wasn’t quite right. He described it like this in the letter: “I met Aurel M. through my good friend who claimed that he could get a mortgage, and who would be important for me to buy a bar. We make a deal, I give him €10,000, he takes care of the company and promises that in 5 months (the time needed to get the bonitet) and with this company we can go ahead an buy my bar, which I would pay off in installments. However, in the meantime, he introduces me to Branko T. who sold me an Audi A6, which I later discovered was stolen; I returned the car and asked to get my money back and stop all future cooperation.”

Mihovec claims that they could not avoid returning the debt, and decided to get revenge by by joining together with A. M., a drug deal from Dubrava and Krešo A’s snitch. Mihovec claims that they agreed to plant the drugs, hoping that they wouldn’t have to return the money if he was in prison and hoping that they will be able to complete their planned criminal actions without any disturbances. Mihovec writes: “Based on the fact that they constantly want to portray me as someone’s colleague in their made-up story, this should not cause any problems for them.” Mihovec claims that, forced by the situation, he has managed to create a detailed reconstruction of which types of criminal activities have been underway over the past several weeks. No one from the authorized government institution was interested in what Mihovec had to say before he turned himself into the police. They did not feel there was enough information to check it. On the other hand, Mihovec did not believe that anyone would believe him after he turned himself in, mainly because he claims that there are several police officers and SOA agents who are involved in the criminal activities. The same shocking letter that he sent to Nacional was also delivered to the head of SOA, Tomislav Karamarko through a mediator. He also contacted other SOA, police and USKOK officials by telephone on various occasions.

Krasniqi, Mihovec’s apparent colleague, killed on 22 March 2006Mihovec claims that his mediator recently met with Tomislav Karamarko on two separate occasions. This person simply appeared at the SOA headquarters and asked for a meeting with Karamarko. At the entrance, they took her personal identification card and wrote who she was meeting. Karamarko had a meeting with her in SOA headquarters two weeks ago on Saturday morning. During this meeting, Karamarko’s deputy Josko Buljevic personally spoke to Mihovec on the telephone. They spoke for less than two minutes. Karamarko was primarily very interested in the claims written in the letter and told the mediator that they should meet again at 18:00. In the afternoon they were supposed to investigate all claims and inform Mihovec via the mediator as the whether they were ready to negotiate and verify all his information. However, at the second meeting, SOA’s interest in Mihovec’s information deflated. At the meeting, the person who brought Mihovec’s letter met with Karamarko’s deputy Josko Buljevic, as well as another individual. They told her that the claims in the letter should be investigated by the police, and that it is not within their jurisdiction. Then they told her that it would not be a good idea that the contents of Mihovec’s letter be released to the public, because he could be criminally charged, and they could also arrest the person who brought in the letter for aiding a fugitive. If they had already threatened to arrest her for aiding a fugitive and if they thought they had the evidence to justify the arrest, why did they not call the police to come arrest her when she was already in SOA headquarters? In the end, they said that the contents in Mihovec’s letter are not enough to begin any investigation, nor would they suggest this to the police. Because the police and SOA have informally connected Mihovec to drug trafficking, loansharking and extortion, it is, in the least, strange that they do not believe that his information on drug trafficking could be correct. As he is a fugitive, Mihovec is not in the position to gamble his freedom with false information, and he knows that he will personally have problems with people from the criminal underground because of it.

Mihovec wrote in one of the letters: “Gentlemen from the police, I am alone and I am solving my problems alone; why don’t you complete your statistics by proving, and not planting evidence and take care of your own people because you really have a group of professionals working for you (who I really respect), but you have garbage there that has fewer morals than some guys on the streets. Someone could say that I have ‘snitched’, but imagine you are playing poker. Then the rules would be the same for everyone, wouldn’t they? I can’t watch as someone uses two decks and deals the cards as they see fit.”

Mihovec decided to release the contents of the letters to the public, and delivered them to Nacional in the end. The introductory letter was signed personally, and his personal identity card was also delivered to Nacional to confirm to validity of the signature. Mihovec hopes that after his letters are published, someone in the authorized government institutions will have to offer the public an explanation as to why no one was interested or even tried to validate the authenticity of his story.