Serbia moves 15 police leaders after five‑ton marijuana seizure
Thirteen officers say leadership was dismissed one day after the five‑ton seizure and that families were subjected to pressure.
Fifteen senior officers in Serbia’s drugs unit were reassigned to other posts after police seized five tonnes of marijuana near Kruševac earlier this year, an investigative report said.
Officers say leadership was dismantled and families pressured
The report published a letter that 13 policemen sent to Prime Minister Gjuro Macut, saying that one day after the operation that recovered the historic quantity of marijuana the service’s leadership was removed and that they and their families faced pressure. The letter was signed by the 13 officers, who requested a meeting with the prime minister; they say he has not responded to their requests to date.
According to the letter, “One day after the seizure the dismantling of the service began, with the head of the service, the deputy head of the service, the chiefs and their deputies in all four departments of the service, as well as five department heads, being dismissed. After our dismissals, pressures and dismissals began on our spouses who are employed in the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as various kinds of pressures.” The officers addressed that text to Prime Minister Gjuro Macut in their appeal.
The seized marijuana was reportedly found on property belonging to a local official of the ruling SNS (Serbian Progressive Party), the report added.
Police in Serbia announced the five-ton seizure near Kruševac earlier this year; the subsequent personnel moves inside the Service for Combating Drugs at the Criminal Police Directorate have prompted questions from within the force and calls for an explanation from the government.
Photo: press material from the event
