DONJE PRILIŠĆE, Croatia — A human‑smuggling run along the Western Balkan route turned deadly this month after Croatian police discovered four migrants dead and 15 others barely alive near the Slovenia border — a tragedy that mirrors the brutal tactics used by Mexican cartel‑run smuggling networks along the U.S.‑Mexico border.
Croatian authorities say the group had been packed into a cargo lorry earlier this month under suffocating, “inhumane conditions” before being dumped near the former border crossing at Donje Prilišće. Two survivors were hospitalized in critical condition, according to Infomigrants.
The suspected driver — a 22‑year‑old Montenegrin national — fled the scene and remains on the run.
The tactics used by smugglers along the Croatia-Slovenia border are reminiscent of those employed by Mexican Cartel human smugglers who frequently pack illegal aliens into trailers and railcars to move them into the U.S. interior, as Breitbart Texas reports.
The death toll rose days later when two additional bodies were found in separate rivers along the Croatia–Slovenia frontier. Investigators have not yet confirmed whether the victims were part of the same smuggling group, but the timing and proximity strongly suggest a connection.
Slovenian police also located 11 migrants believed to be tied to the same transport and returned them to Croatia under bilateral procedures.
Italian news agency ANSA reported that Croatian police found the bodies on May 4, along with two survivors in grave condition.
Croatia — now classified as an EU external‑border state — has become a major choke point for migrants moving from Bosnia and Herzegovina toward the Schengen zone. Karlovac County, where the bodies were found, has seen a surge in smuggling operations using cargo trucks, vans, and makeshift compartments.
Croatia recorded 16,500 illegal border crossings in 2025, one of the highest totals on the Western Balkan route.
Slovenia, now tagged as an interior Schengen state, is experiencing increased “secondary movements” — migrants who enter Croatia illegally and attempt to move north toward Italy, Austria, and Germany.
Ljubljana has refused to accept new migrant relocations in 2026, opting instead to contribute financially to the EU’s solidarity mechanism.
The conditions described by Croatian authorities — migrants locked in airless compartments, abandoned in remote areas, left to die — closely resemble the Mexican cartel‑run human‑smuggling operations that U.S. Border Patrol agents confront frequently.
Earlier this month, officials in South Texas discovered multiple deceased illegal aliens who had been loaded into railcars by human smugglers.
On the U.S. southern border:
- Cartels routinely pack migrants into tractor‑trailers, leading to mass‑casualty suffocation events (San Antonio, 2022: 53 dead).
- Smugglers frequently abandon migrants in deserts, resulting in hundreds of heat‑exposure deaths each year.
- Criminal networks treat migrants as “cargo”, charging thousands per person and discarding them when law enforcement pressure increases.
- U.S. agents regularly find migrants locked in rail cars, shipping containers, stash houses, and vehicle compartments — identical to the methods used in the Croatia case.
The Balkan smugglers’ tactics — high‑density packing, sealed compartments, abandonment, and fleeing when police approach — are functionally indistinguishable from cartel operations in Texas, Arizona, and California.
Croatian search teams continue to comb the border region, fearing additional bodies may still be undiscovered. The fugitive smuggler faces charges of aggravated smuggling resulting in death, a crime carrying a lengthy prison sentence.
Officials say the case is a stark reminder that smugglers — whether in the Balkans or on the U.S. southern border — “treat human beings as disposable assets.”
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.