ZAGREB, CROATIA - As a part of “Operation Dubai”, on Wednesday February 11, four people were arrested under the suspicion of bribery and racketeering in the Zagreb branch of the taxation office. The suspects were arrested after they accepted 35,000 euros that were previously marked by the police.

The criminal police and the department for combating economic crime in the Zagreb police headquarters (PUZ), discovered a group of corrupt workers in the Zagreb branch of the taxation office, and the investigation lasted for a number of weeks.

The spokesperson of the State Attorney’s Office, Martina Mihodin, confirmed that the arrests occurred, and said that it is too early to release the number of people arrested, and other details such as names.

The Croatian Minister of Finance Ivan Suker revealed the number of people arrested, who said that four people were in question: two people in the taxation office and two people in the finance office.

As we unofficially find out, the code name Dubai was given to the operation, because one of those arrested travelled there often.

According to the newspaper Vecernji List, the chief of the Zagreb taxation headquarters was arrested, Z.M, as well as two taxation inspectors who accepted bribes together with him. Today a offense report was being prepared against a worker at the taxation office, and the USKOK (Office for the Suppression of Corruption and Organized Crime) should file a request to start an investigation and the arrest of corrupt tax collectors.

Allegedly, bribery was reported by one of the victims who is a taxpayer-racketeer, but it has yet to be determined how many companies and individuals were caught by taxation embezzlement.

The suspected tax collectors, it was unofficially found out, are suspected of “taxation racketeering”, which means that they ignored certain entrepreneurs in Zagreb.

The police confirmed that an operation was carried out in the taxation office, but for now they did not want to talk about the details of the investigation.