Biggest Organized Crime Sweep in Decades Rocks Slovakia’s Elite

The arrest of a prominent businessman with close political ties would have shocked Slovakia a year ago. Yet when Jozef Brhel was detained by police last week and charged with corruption, his was just another name.

The 59-year-old former government official, who denies all wrongdoing, was the latest target in the biggest sweep against graft and organized crime since the nation ceded from Czechoslovakia almost three decades ago. The net already included former police chiefs, prosecutors, the heads of tax administration and tax investigations, the country’s second-richest man, an ex-deputy justice minister and dozens of police officers and judges.

To many ...