With a request for international legal assistance, the police and other competent bodies in the early hours of this morning conducted a coordinated action in six locations in Skopje.

At the same time, actions were carried out in Belgium and the Netherlands by the investigative bodies of the respective countries.

The competent prosecutor from the Basic Public Prosecutor's Office for Prosecution of Organized Crime and Corruption will issue an Order for the development of investigative procedure against two persons for whom there is a reasonable suspicion that they have committed a criminal offense - Money laundering and other proceeds of crime.

According to the Request for International Legal Aid, under the direction of a Belgian investigating judge, a criminal organization is being investigated which, among other things, deals with the unauthorized cultivation of cannabis and the sale of narcotics.

From the actions of the investigating judge and the Federal Judicial Police of West Flanders, it was concluded that most of the members of the organized criminal group are citizens of Macedonia, or originating from our country, while the rest are from the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Belgian citizens.


The group has been cultivating cannabis illegally on several plantations in Belgium and the Netherlands since January 1, 2020, possibly even earlier.

The suspected Macedonian citizens were periodically on the line Belgium and the Netherlands - Republic of Northern Macedonia.

At the same time, the investigation found that the suspects took part of the money earned from the crime in the RS of Macedonia and bought a part of the real estate in the Belgian real estate market.

In the action which involved a large number of police officers and started in a coordinated manner in all three countries at 5 o'clock in the morning, money was seized, an automatic, a rifle, two pistols, a large amount of ammunition, vehicles and gold jewelry , as well as evidence of transactions of large sums of money in bank accounts, while two persons were deprived of liberty who will appear before a judge in a preliminary procedure in the Basic Criminal Court - Skopje.

Given that there are circumstances that indicate the risk of absconding, hiding the suspects, as well as destroying the traces of the criminal offense, influencing witnesses or repeating the criminal offense, the competent public prosecutor will tell the pre-trial judge that he has presented proposal for determining the detention measure for the suspects.

At the same time,

At the same time in Belgium 11 people were arrested and 20 locations were searched, while in the Netherlands five people were arrested.