Boro Stojcev, former Mayor of the Novo Selo municipality near Strumica, is the high ranking former official who was arrested in a large marijuana sweep yesterday.

Stojcev was nicknamed Boro Marlboro, after he was arrested in 2018 for smuggling cigarettes in neighboring Bulgaria. The incident was covered up by the ruling SDSM party as Stojcev was the Mayor of a town right next to Strumica – the main powerbase of then SDSM leader Zoran Zaev. He served only six months out of the 18 months sentence despite the fact that police had to fire to stop his group of smugglers.

Yesterday it was revealed that Stojcev was heavily involved in marijuana smuggling – he and a dozen persons were arrested in raids in several locations in Strumica and across Macedonia. Drugs were also seized. The police is expected to reveal additional details about the raid next week.

Despite the smuggling sentence, Stojcev’s son Pero Stojcev received a license to extract marijuana oil in 2020, in the heyday of this suspicious business when the Zaev regime was freely handing out licenses to his political cronies. It is widely reported that the marijuana oil extraction licenses are used to grow marijuana, which is then smuggled into neighboring countries and sold on the black market, instead of converted into medicinal oil.

Recently, Pero Stojcev was hired in the Macedonian Customs office, as an advisor. The Customs is led by Stefan Bogoev, former top SDSM party official.