Skopje, 21 May 2025 (MIA) - Police officers detained four individuals on Wednesday morning during searches conducted in Skopje as part of an ongoing investigation against members of a criminal group in an operation dubbed “Bunker”. During the searches, the police also found a large amount of marijuana in the home of one of the suspects, which will be subject to forensic analysis, the Interior Ministry said in a press release.

The Ministry said there is reasonable suspicion that the four detained individuals committed the crimes of “criminal association” and “murder”, while one of the suspects also committed the crime of “unauthorized production and release for trade of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, and precursors”.

According to the gathered evidence, the Ministry said that in 2023 the suspects became members of a group that had been operating for a longer period and aimed to commit crimes such as murder for revenge and contract killings, which carry a sentence of at least ten years or life imprisonment, among other crimes.

“By following the decisions and instructions of the criminal group’s organizers, the suspects continuously took actions to create conditions, remove obstacles and provide resources for carrying out contract killings. In July 2023, three of the suspects on Macedonian and Greek territory, acting on orders from a previous suspect – the group’s organizer – conducted reconnaissance and secured means to commit a crime, killing a member of a rival organized crime group in Greece. In May 2024, in front of a building in Skopje, two suspects committed a murder, and while fleeing the scene fired at a parked vehicle nearby, injuring several individuals, one of whom later died,” the Interior Ministry said in the press release.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Public Prosecutor’s Office said police units were carrying searches at five locations in Skopje, as part of an investigation targeting members of the "Belanoca-Baron" crime ring.

Photo: MIA Archive