“Croatian Escobar” Detained in Slovenia and Fighting Extradition

STA, March 14 - The Slovenian police arrested in Ljubljana last week Croatian citizen Stjepan Prnjat as part of an international sting against drug traffickers. The "Croatian Escobar" does not agree with his extradition to Croatia as he believes he would not get a fair treatment there.

Prnjat's legal representative in Slovenia, Luka Fabiani, told the STA on Wednesday that the procedure to extradite the 47-year-old to Croatia was under way, with the court yet to make its final decision.

The procedure based on an European arrest and extradition warrant is being conducted by the Ljubljana District Court, which has ordered detention for Prnjat.

"Mister Prnjat does not agree with extradition, as he thinks that because of the stigma attached to him as a convict for a criminal act similar to the one he is suspected of now, and because of the media campaign against him in Croatia, he would not enjoy objective treatment there," Fabiani said.

He added that Prnjat's case could also be processed by Slovenian courts.

The Slovenian law gives the court 60 days for a decision on extradition in case a wanted person does not agree with extradition.

It was the Croatian police to report last Thursday that six Croatians, two Dutch and one Spaniard had been arrested in Croatia and Slovenia in the Nana international sting operation, as part of which 100 kilos of cocaine was seized in the Croatian port of Rijeka.

The group are suspected of smuggling heroin and cocaine from South America to Europe. Among the suspects is Prnjat, who was also arrested in 2007 when the Croatian police busted an international drug smuggling group.

According to commercial broadcaster POP TV, Prnjat got around EUR 4.7m on his bank account frozen by a court in Ljubljana several years ago on suspicion that the money was gained with drug trafficking. The seizure was requested by a Croatian court.

Unofficially, the "Croatian Escobar", named after the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, organised a total of twenty shipments of at least a hundred kilos of cocaine between 2000 and 2005.