Bosnia Arrests 20 Officials In Forgery Crackdown

Bosnian police on Wednesday arrested around 20 people including police and passport officials as part of a crackdown on a crime ring forging documents for criminal activities, a chief prosecutor said.

Most of suspects were employees of the Citizen Identification Protection System (CIPS) -- which issues the country's identification cards and passports -- in the northern Brcko district, and police officials in Bosnia's Serb Republic.

Public and private buildings were searched and arrests made in other towns, including the capital Sarajevo, said Drew Engel, head of the organised crime department at Bosnia's state court. "The investigation uncovered evidence that illegally obtained cards, possibly numbering in hundreds, have been used as part of criminal activities in Bosnia-Herzegovina," he said.

Engel said the country-wide crackdown followed an extensive investigation by his office into the "widespread abuse and misuse of BIH's computerised ID card and passport system" by corrupt officials.

The operation uncovered large amounts of money and several weapons, Engel said, adding that further searches and arrests were likely to follow.

The Serb Republic is the autnomous Serb region that together with the Muslim-Croat federation has made up Bosnia since the 1992-95 war.