Trasa: Police Seize 14 Automatic Rifles Near Banja Luka
Three people, including a Slovenian citizen, were arrested in Operation Trasa after police seized 14 automatic rifles, ammunition and a pistol at three locations near Banja Luka and Prnjavor.
The Banja Luka Police Administration arrested three people and seized 14 automatic rifles in an operation codenamed Trasa, and the fact that one of the suspects is a Slovenian citizen immediately pulls the story out of a local frame and back into a theme Belgrade has followed for years: the amount of weaponry left in private hands across the Western Balkans after the wars of the 1990s, and the channels through which it still moves toward markets in the region and the European Union. Serbia felt that problem directly, running an amnesty for illegal firearms and tightening the rules on gun ownership after the mass shootings of May 2023, while the supply on the black market has stayed tied to the neighborhood.
The Banja Luka police statement was released on August 6 at 3:25 p.m. Those arrested were M.K. from Laktasi, M.D. from Stanari and I.B., a Slovenian citizen. They are charged with the criminal offense of unlawful production and trafficking of weapons or explosive materials, with guilt to be determined in the proceedings that follow.
What was seized, and where
Searches were carried out at three locations in the Banja Luka and Prnjavor area, while part of the operation took place in Derventa, in cooperation with the local police station there. The warrants were issued by the basic courts in Banja Luka and Derventa.
From the statement issued by the Banja Luka Police Administration:
As part of the operation, 14 automatic rifles with accompanying magazines, a certain quantity of ammunition, and one pistol were found and seized.
This is military-grade weaponry with full magazine sets, not hunting or sporting firearms, and the string of locations along the Banja Luka, Prnjavor, Derventa route explains the operation’s codename.
The case now moves to the prosecution, as police announced:
Once the file has been completed and documented, the arrested men will be handed over, along with a report on the criminal offenses committed, to the jurisdiction of the Banja Luka District Public Prosecutor’s Office.
Why does the Slovenian citizen matter here?
Because Slovenia is not the final stop, it is an entry point. The country is a member of the European Union and part of the Schengen area, so once a shipment crosses its border it effectively stops facing systematic checks all the way to Western Europe. That exact pattern, weapons from Bosnia and Herzegovina’s postwar stockpiles being sold through Croatia and Slovenia to buyers inside the EU, is precisely why European offices had been watching this issue even before it turned into a matter for police operations.
In 2018 in London, under the Berlin Process, the region adopted a joint roadmap for curbing the illegal possession and trafficking of small arms and light weapons, a document accepted by both Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. That commitment did not expire with a change of governments: weapons control remains one of the technical benchmarks Brussels measures as part of the region’s European path, and a seizure of this size is itself a sign that these quantities are still circulating.
What happens next
The next step is a decision from the prosecution in Banja Luka on custody, and on whether the three suspects will be treated as individuals or as part of an organized group, a distinction that in cases like this changes both the charges and the sentencing range. Only the investigation will answer where the 14 automatic rifles came from and who they were meant for, and that answer will also determine whether the case stays in Banja Luka or requires cooperation with police in Croatia and Slovenia.
