InfoMigrants

Croatian police are hunting for an alleged people smuggler who is believed to have dumped the bodies of four migrants and abandoned dozens of others near the Slovenian border earlier this month.

The man in question is believed to be a 22-year-old Montenegrin national who is "on the run," Croatian police told journalists on Monday (May 11), reported the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Police believe that the suspect placed migrants in such cramped conditions that the four victims found most likely suffocated to death. If caught, the suspect would face charges of trafficking of people and causing death. Such charges could carry a potential 15-year prison sentence.

In early May, police found four dead bodies and 15 living migrants in the village of Donje Prilisce, about 70 kilometers southwest of the capital Zagreb. Another 11 migrants, thought to be from the same group, were found in Slovenia and later returned to Croatia.

'Inhumane conditions'

At the time, it was reported that the migrants were transported in a cargo lorry where they endured "inhumane conditions." The police believed they were then left at the border after the driver fled the scene.

Two migrants from the group were hospitalized and described as being in "poor health," although one has since been released, reported AFP. Croatian authorities said they would be conducting post-mortems and further investigations into the men's deaths to establish their identities. The nationalities of the migrants found, both dead and alive, were not reported.

Last weekend, the bodies of two more persons believed to be migrants were found in two different rivers along the Croatia-Slovenia border. The two bodies were found not far from the place where police discovered the four dead migrants and 15 living ones, although as yet, the two cases have not been linked, reported AFP.

Balkan route

Croatia and Slovenia are on the so-called Balkan route, which winds from Turkey through Greece, Bulgaria and up through various Balkan countries towards Western Europe. Those who reach Croatia, which is already part of the EU, often hope to continue onwards towards Slovenia and Italy. From there, some make their way further towards France and the UK, or Germany, the Netherlands, or the Scandinavian countries.

In 2025, according to data provided by the European border agency Frontex, there were 12,525 "irregular border crossings" registered along the Western Balkan route. That figure had declined, says Frontex, by 42 percent compared to the number of crossings recorded in 2024. However, the number of crossings do not correspond exactly to the number of people who may actually be traveling that route. There are multiple borders to cross along the Western Balkan route, and many people might make several attempts before they eventually pass through.

Most of those who do pass through will have evaded detection in order to cross. Those working at NGOs that support migrants in Italy and Slovenia told InfoMigrants in 2025 that they believe the actual numbers of people traveling the route have not altered that much over the years; it is just that the smugglers have become more organized and are now offering not only transport but often holding houses to migrants and traveling routes more off the beaten track to avoid being stopped at the borders.

Dangerous journeys

Several expert studies have suggested that the more the authorities try to crack down on smuggling routes, the more dangerous they can become for migrants as smugglers try to cram more people into modes of transport and take more risks.

According to the IOM’s Missing Migrants Project, 22 migrants were recorded as having died along the Western Balkans route into Europe in 2025. This year so far, eight deaths have been recorded, although the latest was entered on April 30, 2026, meaning the bodies in Croatia may not have been added to that tally.

Several investigative reports by European journalistic collectives have found that organized crime is heavily involved in both the smuggling of people as well as illicit goods like weapons, drugs and money in these regions. Many of the largest and most successful networks rely on local "foot soldiers" and gangs who take the migrants or goods through a small portion of their territory, before passing them on to the next stage in the network. Some of these gangs have links to big crime syndicates that stretch right out of Europe and into the migrants’ countries of origin.

Europol has opened up a new task force to try to tackle the many tentacles of these networks. The European police agency states on its website that migrant smuggling is "a complex, ruthless and multinational network, …generating billions of euros for the criminal groups involved."

The police agency says that migrant smuggling has a "profound impact on Europe’s criminal landscape, with criminal networks substantially increasing their involvement in migrant smuggling."

Profits and costs

Europol estimates that more than 90 percent of migrants traveling to the EU used smuggler facilitation services. The organized crime gangs working the routes are making huge profits. In 2015 alone -- the year more than a million migrants arrived in Europe -- Europol calculated that criminal networks had a turnover of between three and six billion euros. "These earnings strengthen criminal networks and have a significant negative long-term impact on Europe’s economy."

In March this year, Europol launched a new center against migrant smuggling (ECAMS). The center gathers data-driven insights, conducts investigations on the ground, collaborates across states and attempts to disrupt the criminal networks operating therein.

In a Europol report from December 2025, looking at the fees migrants paid on average to travel a certain route in 2024, migrants were thought to be paying between 1,500 and 5,000 to travel between Bosnia Herzegovina (BiH), via Croatia to Slovenia and on to Italy. The same report also estimated that they would have paid similar fees to travel from Turkey to Greece. Then they might pay between 200 and 1,500 euros to cross Bulgaria and Serbia and reach BiH.

Meaning that a journey from South Asia or the Middle East to western Europe could end up costing tens of thousands of euros overall, even via the cheapest means, smuggled in cars and on foot, with no forged papers or passports. In 2024, Europol estimated that a smuggling trip from say Pakistan via Spain to Norway, Denmark or Sweden using forged documents might cost anything from 2,300 up to 27,500 euros for the trip.

With AFP, Reuters