VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Aleksandar Nikoloski today revealed additional names of mobsters from the Balkan underworld who were given Macedonian passports by the Zaev regime. Nikoloski revealed that Florjan Musaj, leader of a narco cartel from Albania, was given a Macedonian passport in July 2019 under the assumed name Naum Filo. Musaj’s gang was the target of a major raid in 2018, when in a coordinated action, German, Italian, Dutch and Albanian police forces seized over 90 kilos of cocaine worth 20 million EUR on the border between Austria and Italy.

According to our information, Musaj was travelling unobstructed through Europe with the Macedonian passport, before leaving for Latin America in October 2019, Nikoloski said.

Musaj is member of the so-called Baruti clan which was running a major cocaine operation along with the Bushi clan. They operate out of North Italy and have branches in the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria.

Another regional mobster who was given a passport by the Zaev regime is Serbian Stefan Djukic, who is the suspect in the attack on mobster Radoje Zvicer, who was target of an assassination attempt in Ukraine in May 2020. Zvicer is part of the so-called Kavachki gang, and Djukic is a hitman for the rival Serbian Shkaljarski gang. Djukic was using a passport issued under the name Gjergji Kace.

VMRO-DPMNE earlier revealed that another boss in the Shkaljarski gang, Jovan Vukotic, was given a Macedonian passport in 2017, just months into the Zaev regime. A Macedonian identity card was given in 2021 to Turkish mobster Sedat Peker, who was staying in Macedonia for a period of time, meeting with politicians close to the Zaev regime.

The revelations prompted hasty arrest of about a dozen low level police officials in the department that issues passports and identity cards. Interior Minister Oliver Spasovski put together a PR campaign in which he is claiming that he was conducting an investigation into the corrupt Interior Ministry officials that are enabling regional drug lords for years, but that VMRO-DPMNE obstructed it when it revealed that Vukotic and Peker were given Macedonian documents. Spasovski even claimed that one of the officers that was arrested was in contact with VMRO leader Hristijan Mickoski, who said that whistleblowers within the Ministry were warning the opposition party that Spasovski is enabling the issuing of passports to major regional criminals.

The Interior Ministry issued the documents to these mobsters and never issued an arrest warrant after them. Now they are going after the small fish and trying to protect the main players. The reason for this is that the mafia is operating from the top of the Government, Nikoloski said.

Nikoloski also denied the spin that Mickoski was in contact with a police official who was arrested yesterday.