Police agencies in Bosnia raided more than 50 locations and arrested around 20 suspects across several cities in the Republika Srpska half of the country, as part of a crackdown on a suspected organized crime group that smuggled illicit drugs and firearms from Western Balkan Countries into the European Union.

The operation, ordered by the prosecutors, is being carried out by the State Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA), the Interior Ministry of Bosnia’s Republika Srpska (RS) entity and the Interior Ministry of Sarajevo Canton.

The investigation involved cooperation with police forces in the European Union and Europol.

The organized criminal group is suspected of carrying out international smuggling of drugs and weapons for a long period of time, prosecutors said. Members of the group are said to have operated in several countries, and narcotics were most often smuggled from Albania and Montenegro into Bosnia and then further into EU countries such as Croatia, Slovenia, Hungary, and Germany.