Major Heroin Trafficking Route "Passes Through Bosnia"

The money earned on the so-called Balkan route exceeds €20 billion per year, the data published on the first interactive organised crime atlas shows.

According to the Banja Luka-based daily Nezavisne Novine, the atlas shows all routes of drugs, arms, human and other kinds of trafficking in the world.

The map shows for the first time the details regarding cocaine transport, as well as owners who control certain routes.

According to the author of the atlas, the Balkan route is also used for human and arms trafficking, and the earnings reach a whopping $1.5 billion.

Republika Srpska Police Director Gojko Vasić told the newspaper that during a recent meeting at the Interpol heaquarters, police forces from south-east European countries were warned that a large amount of heroin was passing through the Balkan route.

But Vasic believes the figures given in the interactive atlas are superficial and inaccurate.

"It simply does not stand to reason that heroin smugglers, once they manage to enter the territory of EU member state Bulgaria, would then reroute to Macedonia, Serbia or Bosnia, where there are a series of checks at borders. It makes more sense that they would transport their drugs further through EU countries, where there are far fewer checks.

"I think that assessments that the Balkan route is seeing enormous amounts of drugs pass through are inaccurate and superficial," Vasic concluded.