Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office North Macedonia announced that the investigation for the transport of five tons marijuana to Serbia was extended to seven more persons and that two suspects pleaded guilty and were sentenced to prison terms.
As stated in the announcement, on August 10, the Basic Criminal Court of Skopje passed two verdicts based on the proposed agreement that the Prosecution for Organized Crime concluded with the two suspects, who admitted to having committed the criminal offense charged against them and were sentenced to prison terms of three years and six months, respectively three years and eight months.
It is emphasized that the current course of the investigation, which has been conducted since February this year in the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and Corruption of North Macedonia on "organized transport of the narcotic drug marijuana from North Macedonia to Serbia, indicates a wider circle of individuals involved in organized criminal activity".
"Evidence coming from investigative actions and international cooperation with the competent authorities of the Republic of Serbia resulted in the adoption of a new Order on the implementation of investigative proceedings against seven more persons," the statement of the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime specifies.
It is stated that those seven are suspected of having committed the same criminal offense as the previously suspected "unauthorized production and placing on the market of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and precursors" as members of an organized criminal group.
"From an unspecified period during 2025 until the end of January 2026, on Macedonian and Serbian territory, six people who are being prosecuted in Serbia, six people included in the investigation of the Prosecutor's Office for organized crime since February, seven new suspects, as well as other currently unknown persons, joined forces for the unauthorized sale and release of the narcotic drug marijuana," the statement reads.
It is specified that each of them had a "specific role, whereby they themselves or through other unknown persons took over, kept and transported the narcotic drug marijuana for its further unauthorized sale and circulation on the territory of Serbia and other countries".
Photo: Ministry of the Interior of SerbiaRecord seizure of marijuana in Serbia
A front or legal entity
According to the investigation, a legal entity in Skopje that has a license to grow cannabis for medical purposes and a license to produce cannabis extracts for medical purposes was used as a cover for illegal activities.
The owners of the legal entity from Skopje, one of whom is the manager, as stated, "jointly and according to a previous agreement organized other unknown persons from Serbia and North Macedonia to jointly acquire the narcotic drug marijuana and transport it from North Macedonia to Serbia on several occasions".
"For this purpose, they used cargo vehicles and customs declarations that indicated that they were transporting textiles, food and other types of goods. After the narcotic drugs were transported across the state border, they organized storage in the town of Konjuh near Kruševac, where the marijuana was repackaged and distributed for further sale," the statement of the Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime of North Macedonia reads.
How they transported the drugs
According to the evidence provided so far, "the same modus operandi (mode of operation) was applied in at least five transports, for which different passenger and cargo motor vehicles were used."
"In the case of trucks with previously cleared and sealed goods, the seal was removed and part of the customs goods was taken out, and in its place were placed boxes of the narcotic drug marijuana weighing approximately equal to the weight of the recovered goods. The truck was then directed to the Tabanovce border crossing, and one of the suspects followed it in a passenger vehicle. In this way, marijuana was transported disguised as food products, pillows and quilts," the statement of the Prosecutor's Office for organized crime and corruption in North Macedonia.
It is recalled that on July 21, 2026, the Serbian Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime indicted six members of an organized criminal group for international illegal transportation of marijuana.
"According to the indictment there, two owners of a legal entity from Skopje gave instructions and coordinated members of a criminal group who had the task of receiving and storing the narcotic drug marijuana in the warehouse of the legal entity in the town of Konjuh, whose owner and manager is also accused. Part of the drug was then stored in auxiliary facilities in his home in Konjuh, where it was repackaged for further sale, after which the marijuana intended for sale in the territory of Belgrade was handed over to another accused member of the group," it is written in announcement.
Photo: Tanjug/OMK Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of SerbiaFive tons of marijuana in the premises of Alfafarma in Konjuh near Kruševac
Seizure in Konjuh
At the end of January, the police found and seized five tons of marijuana in the village of Konjuh near Kruševac, which is the largest seizure of that drug in Serbia.
On the same day, the president of the People's Movement of Serbia, Miroslav Aleksić, stated that one of the arrested in this case was Rade Spasojević, the councilor of the SNS in Kruševac - which, in the end, turned out to be correct information.
We remind you that, after the investigation, in July, the TOK filed an indictment against the defendant Aleksandar Mijajlović, as an organizer, the defendant Ivan Dragnić, as a co-organizer, as well as against the defendants Nebojša Spasojević, Rad Spasojević, Uroš Mladenovski and Robert Živković, as members of an organized criminal group.
The indictment charges them that, from an unspecified date in 2025 until January 29, 2026, they acted as an organized criminal group on the territory of the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of North Macedonia, established to commit the crime of unauthorized production and distribution of narcotic drugs from Article 246 of the Criminal Code, with the aim of obtaining direct financial and other property benefits.
Source: Beta
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