The Macedonian mafia (Macedonian: Македонска мафија, romanized: Makedonska mafija) is a body of illegal gangs and criminal organizations operating in North Macedonia and within the Macedonian diaspora.

The organizations are primarily involved in smuggling, arms trafficking, heists, drug trafficking, protection rackets, and illegal gambling. The mafia comprises several major organized groups, which in turn have wider networks in Macedonia and throughout Europe.

History

Criminal activities began in Macedonia while it was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. Informal groups of bandits with names like “Ajduci - Ајдуци” (Macedonian bandit groups) and “Bashibozuk - Başıbozuk” (Turkish bandit groups) engaged in war activities, robberies, kidnappings, and sometimes fought each other. The groups were named for their leader, but an Albanian bandit group also was active in Macedonia named “Arnauti - Aranuts” from Turkish dialect.

From 1918 to 1942, Macedonian opium was one of the highest quality in the world because of suitable soil and river alluvium. From the statistics of public documents of that time, the producers of opium between the two world wars satisfied 43% of the demand of the global legal processing industry, and later Yugoslav-Turkish cooperation covered 80% of the world countries needed, on an annual basis. This amounted to an average of 42 tons of opium, which was worth around 29 million dinars, which corresponded to the average budget revenues of the whole called “Vardarska Banovina”. That's why today Macedonia from that period is called “Balkan Colombia” Because eight tons of opium were smuggled into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia every year, it can be concluded that almost a quarter of the legal production was released into the illegal trade market if there are added other drugs and their illegal channels: heroin, morphine, and codeine. In the USA, there was the connection of the Belgrade and Skopje criminal organizations with the leading European drug transport networks across the Atlantic, then the increasing interest of American diplomacy in the situation in Yugoslavia from the end of 1937 became understandable, where the opium trade was controlled by Italian-American Mafia, during the war these drug channels for smuggling opium into the US were cut off. In the meantime, control and primacy were taken by other countries that were competitive in this business; the assumptions led to the facts in that period, then were engaged and main characters of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization VMRO is also an interesting fact.

After the War in Macedonia in 2001, many criminals were killed who were infiltrated into the weapons trade, drug trade, and war activities.

In 2006 Macedonian police in action "Jug" seized David Beckham's SUV in Debar, the luxury BMW X5 was stolen in the Spanish capital where Beckham played for Real Madrid. It was among five vehicles seized at the Macedonia-Albania border in a raid on a human-smuggling gang.^[2]

On 7 January 2007, a shipment of 486 kg of cocaine which was traveling from Venezuela to Greece was caught at the Blace border crossing in a truck that was transporting polycolor cans The value of the seized drug shipment was 92 million euros. The accused, arrested and convicted in that case was Stanislava Chochorovska Poletan and the truck driver. Macedonia Jails Cocaine Smugglers

In 2010, the planning the kidnapping of José Mourinho was done by suspected Macedonian citizens. Criminals had taken photos and videos of the football boss's movements around his villa beside Italy's Lake Como; they had also been watching and filming him as he drove in his car and on the training ground at Inter Milan. Police believe they caught the gang, who have Mafia links, as they prepared to kidnap Mourinho or raid the home where he lives with wife Matilde and their two children. A gang of four Macedonians is suspected of carrying out two recent robberies of businessmen, stealing property worth more than £350,000. They are also believed to have been watching four Atalanta footballers and other Italian celebrities. Their plot was uncovered when police raided the gypsy camp where they lived.^[3]

After the arrest of leaders of the Frankfurt mafia in 2010, the most significant Macedonian criminal organization was created in Veles, and infiltrated Germany and Austria with the heroin trade, destroying the connection of criminal organizations in North Macedonia.^[4]

The 2011-2012 Italian football match-fixing scandal emerged on 1 June 2011 after several football-related figures were arrested or placed under official scrutiny by Italian police for alleged match-fixing. The list included well-known figures from the football world; the group was accused of having set a wide range of Serie B, Lega Pro Prima Divisione, and Lega Pro Seconda Divisione games. A key factor in this scandal was Macedonian citizens from Skopje. Rade Trajkovski Shtekli was arrested in 2011 in Athens and deported to Italy, and Hristijan Ilievski nicknamed "King of fixing matches" was arrested in 2015 in Bergamo.^[5]

On 6 December 2020, two tons of marijuana packed in 200 boxes were stolen from a licensed cannabis oil production plant in Josifovo. On 7 December 2020, it was found in Arachinovo. The contraband has an estimated value of six million euros, or as much as 10 million if sold in the form of cannabis oil.^[6]

On 6 April 2021, in police action "Dvojnik" also called "Mafija" six Macedonian civil servants were arrested in Skopje for the prosecution of the world scandal when the Interior Ministry was giving passports to high-profile criminals from across the world. Between 2017 and 2021, over 200 high-profile drug lords, hitmen, and money launderers were issued passports by the Interior Ministry. Some of them were Jovan Vukotic, Igor Dedovic, Stevan Stamatovic, Radoje Zvicer, Ratko Zivkovic, Sedat Peker, Florian Musaj, Gerti Marku, Admir Murataj, and Karine de Oliveira Campos.^[7]

Today, illegal trade involves stock, food, jewelry, cigarettes, and drugs. For drug trading, the biggest part is taking Albanian cannabis, which goes to Preshevo's valley in the north and south, heroin that comes from Turkey to Bulgaria, and cocaine from Serbia. There are speculations that creation of synthetic drugs is based in part of Tetovo, in 2017, an illegal laboratory was found and 300 kilograms of amphetamine pills were confiscated."^[8]

Groups

• Naserligan

Key people

See also

• Frankfurt mafia

References