Five tons of marijuana: prosecutors expand financial checks and add suspects
Two judicial steps — a plea deal and new accusations — shed light on how the group moved five tons of marijuana across the border.
Two recent steps by the Skopje Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime and Corruption have brought fresh information about the smuggling of five tons of marijuana from North Macedonia to Serbia, breaking a silence that lasted more than six months while the probe continued.
The developments include a published plea agreement with two suspects and a separate announcement that prosecutors will seek charges against seven additional people. In total, 19 individuals have been incriminated in the smuggling network across the two countries.
Details from the court ruling
The Basic Criminal Court accepted the plea deal with defendants Dragan Stojanov and Aleksandar Ivanovski and imposed prison terms on them. The court decision and the prosecutor's announcement overlap: the judgment itself names initials and describes the roles of some of the newly indicated suspects.
According to the judgment that sentenced Stojanov to three and a half years in prison, the criminal group moved marijuana across the northern border not once but on five separate occasions — in August, September and November of last year and most recently on 13 January this year.
Investigators are also examining bank accounts of other Macedonian companies that had business links with the owners or with the already incriminated Skopje company Alfafarm. Authorities say the financial checks form part of an expanding probe that may bring further indictments.
The prosecutor's office has announced additional detentions and formal accusations are possible as the investigation proceeds and more evidence is reviewed.
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