SKOPJE – The Skopje Prosecutor’s Office has opened a case related to the seizure of five tons of marijuana in the village of Konjuh in central Serbia, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reported. The narcotics allegedly originated in North Macedonia, and among those arrested in local official of Serbia’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), on whose property the cannabis was discovered on 29 January.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in North Macedonia told RFE that it was informed of the incident a day after the police operation in Konjuh and that it immediately undertook actions within its statutory mandate.
In written response, the Prosecutor’s Office said it had established “intensive and continuous communication” with the competent institutions in Serbia, involving “active exchange of relevant information and coordinated action”.
“The Prosecutor’s Office has opened a case, and concrete, targeted and coordinated measures are already under way to fully establish all facts and circumstances related to the possible connection of the Republic of North Macedonia to this case”, the Skopje-based Prosecutor’s Office said.
Authorities in Serbia stated that the operation marked the largest marijuana seizure ever recorded in Serbia, while Serbian President Vučić said that state has no connection to the possession of five tons of marijuana.
As RFE recalled, in the well-known “Jovanjica” case, when Europe’s largest marijuana plantation was uncovered in Serbia’s northern province of Vojvodina in 2019, police seized just over one and a half tons of the drug.
The two cases are also linked by allegations of ties between state authorities and the arrested suspects.
“There is no organized crime anywhere without links to state structures, that is, to the political authorities”, said for RFE Predrag Petrović from Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP).
The latest operation of drug seizure in Konjuh was followed by attacks from pro-government tabloids against the Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime (JTOK). In recent months, JTOK has been repeatedly targeted by senior officials over several cases involving members of the ruling SNS.
Last week, the National Assembly of Serbia adopted the amendments to the key judicial laws, proposed by an MP of the ruling SNS, Uglješa Mrdić. The legal changes, among other issues, weaken the competences of the High Prosecutorial Council, a body that elects public prosecutors and is responsible for maintaining their independence. In addition, amendments submitted by an MP of SNS, Olja Petrović, and accepted by Mrdić, will return 11 of 20 prosecutors currently working in the Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organised Crime to the prosecutor’s offices from which they had been temporarily transferred.
