The Skopje court decided to order eight of the defendants arrested in a major drug bust today into detention of one month. The ninth defendant will be detained for eight days.

The group is made mostly of police officers and customs agents who were arrested in a broad operation today. They are suspected of ties to an Albanian drug running group that was bringing chemicals used to produce synthetic drugs. On at least two occasion, the group helped carry the drugs through the Skopje airport and escort them to Kosovo.