In the early hours of Sunday, strong police presence descended on Kocani and Vinica after months of gathering evidence on two dozen criminals who have wreaked havoc throughout Eastern Macedonia by forcing dozens of shops and businesses to give them racket money, physical attacks, drug and weapons trafficking, money laundering etc.
"Police had a search warrant on two disco clubs, but also the homes of the suspects in which we found guns, rifles, baseball bats, swords, large sums of cash etc" says Kotevski, the spokesman for MoI.
All of the arrested were transported to Skopje for interrogation.
Citizens of both Kocani and Vinica woke up this morning with a huge sigh of relief, commenting police should have done this long time ago, but were still satisfied the operation was carried out - better late than never.
MOI Minister Gordana Jankulovska at a press conference said charges are forthcoming against Kocani's head of police and others. "It has become apparent criminals in and around Kocani operated with impunity. The police in Kocani and Vinica did nothing to prevent this."
The MOI sent 300 policemen from Skopje in the wee hours on Sunday. Both the Kocani and Vinica police suspected of aiding criminals were not notified of the operation to avoid any communication between the two.
