Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya has stated that the nation is fully committed to eradicating domestic and international criminal organizations and drug dealers, following a major police operation named ‘Cartel-2’ carried out in Istanbul. During this operation, the Croatian Nenad Petrak was arrested with the participation of special police, Croatian Ministry of Internal Affairs, and Interpol, acting on an international red warrant. Petrak was accused of being the head of a drug cartel that transported drugs from South America to Europe, as well as on suspicion for attempted murder in Split, Croatia.
The Main Police Directorate coordinated the operation and Petrak was found in the Üsküdar district. A video posted by Yerlikaya showed a heavily armed team breaking into a hotel room to arrest Petrak. It was reported that Petrak did not resist much when he was arrested and was found wearing a black tracksuit with a chain around his neck. His hotel safe was ransacked by masked policemen, who discovered a large sum of money, valuable gold jewelry, and other items. In October, the Croatian police collaborated with German authorities to dismantle a criminal association involving 19 individuals of which 12 were arrested while others were under investigation or unavailable.
The police suspect that Petrak coordinated a criminal association in nine countries smuggling cocaine from South America to Europe and distributing it along with hashish and marijuana to other European countries. The criminal investigation started focusing on Petrak after the arrest of three Croatian citizens on a sailboat in the Atlantic Ocean carrying a large quantity of cocaine. After further investigations and several police operations, significant amounts of money, firearms, vehicles drugs and other items were confiscated.
It is not known who exactly shot Josip Čubelić but among the suspects are Jerko Radić Alen Radić Ante Varnica Nenad Petrak According to the police suspects fled the scene after the shooting and are related to both drug smuggling and