Austrian police arrest Western Balkans drug traffickers

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The Austrian police said on Friday that it had arrested a gang of drug traffickers most of who are from the Western Balkans.

The gang, whose 21 members are mostly from Serbia, Croatia and Montenegro, were arrested in Vienna in possession of drugs worth some four million Euro. A press release said that the they earned profits of a million Euro to date, the Nova.rs portal said.

The Austrian police street crime unit (EGS) said it also seized firearms, forged documents and 360,000 Euro in cash. A police spokesman said the operation was conducted in May, specifying that 18 of the arrested suspects are from Serbia, one each from Croatia, Montenegro and Austria. He said the police seized 77 kilograms of various drugs of high purity.

The Western Balkans are a major drug trafficking route for all kinds of narcotics from both South America and Asia. Organized crime groups in Montenegro and Serbia control much of the trafficking on the routes to Western Europe.