On the morning of Wednesday, August 12, Drnovo was a quiet village in the municipality of Krško (municipality Krško), a few kilometers from the border with Croatia. By evening, Slovenian police detained two driver-transporters here and found a total of 126 illegal migrants. In both cases, the criminals were caught thanks to calls from local residents.
In the morning, residents of Drnovo noticed dozens of people being unloaded from a truck near the village, after which the vehicle drove away. Police stopped the truck with Serbian license plates near the Obrežje border crossing: the driver was a 37-year-old citizen of Serbia. Near the village, law enforcement officers found 99 migrants, mostly citizens of Bangladesh and Pakistan, who had exited this vehicle.
In the afternoon, the story almost repeated itself. Another local resident reported a suspicious van near the border — a patrol stopped the vehicle, which was driven by a 27-year-old citizen of Slovakia. Inside were 27 migrants, mostly from Egypt, as well as from Turkey and Russia, reports ta3.
Both drivers were charged with aiding illegal border crossing. The vehicles were confiscated, and the detainees were taken to the investigating judge. The group of 99 people declared their intention to seek asylum in Slovenia, while police procedures for the second group were still ongoing at the time of publication. Authorities publicly thanked the residents of Drnovo for their vigilance.
The region around Novo Mesto is the main “hot spot” of the Slovenian border: the local police department processes about three-quarters of all cases of illegal border crossing in the country, as this is where the so-called Balkan migration route passes. In the first half of 2026, Slovenia recorded 14,455 such cases — almost 50% more than in the same period last year, writes Aktuality.sk.
The operation is also notable because among the detained transporters was a Slovak citizen. The exact role he played and his motives are currently being investigated, adds Dolenjski list.
