Czech Police say they have swooped down on a gang of current and former police officers suspected of being involved in violent crime and corruption. The joint operation was carried out by the special unit for combating organized crime (ÚOOZ), the Police Inspectorate, and the Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office in Olomouc following a preliminary investigation lasting several months, police said in a statement.
According to Czech media, six people were detained in the raid, most of them based in the Czech Republic’s second city, Brno, most of them officers dealing with fraud, corruption and other financial crimes. They are suspected of having covered up and blocked key investigations.
Czech Television said that the investigation is also linked with the murder of an ex-policeman last year.
Public broadcaster Czech Television (ČT) said that the investigation is also linked with the murder of an ex-policeman in Žebětín, a western suburb of Brno, last year. The 45-year-old former member of the regional financial crime squad was shot twice in the head near his home. His apparent attacker had reportedly arrived at the house with a machine gun, and neighbors later said they heard a heated argument followed by several shots.
The policeman had previously been involved in investigations centered on the infamous judge Jiří Berka, who was found guilty of rigging bankruptcy proceedings and eventually sentenced to nine years in prison. One of the suspect bankruptcies that Berka was involved in concerned the Brno-based arms company Česká Zbrojovka.
ÚOOZ spokesman Pavel Hanták told Czech Position on Wednesday that no more details in addition to a brief statement could be given now but that further information might be made available on Friday.
Czech newspaper Lidové Noviny reported that many of the cases the police are said to have swept under the carpet go back a decade and are believed to have been among the most significant that the officer were meant to be probing.
