A new bizzare scandal involving drug trafficking is developing in Macedonia, after a vehicle of the Interior Ministry, carrying two high ranking officials was found to have a secret compartment with several dozens of kilograms of marijuana derived drugs. The Montenegrin Customs Office seized the drugs two days ago at the border crossing with Albania, which prompted allegations that top Ministry officials are involved in drug smuggling. The scandal comes months after the arrest of the Prilep police commissioner while he was escorting a shipment of marijuana from one of the farms reportedly owned by the Zaev family.

Things got even weirded the next day, when the Interior Ministry issued its position on the scandal. According to the Ministry, the vehicle was seized by the Macedonian Customs Agency in 2016, as part of a drug bust and was given to the Interior Ministry, which, allegedly, did not examine it and did not know there is a secret compartment in the car with drugs hidden in it. The two Interior Ministry officials detained in Montenegro are senior officer of the computer crime department of the Ministry and took the vehicle for a visit to Montenegro, without knowing there are drugs in it. The two were allowed to quickly return to Macedonia.

Under the Zaev regime, Macedonia became a serious marijuana exporter in the region, under an officially sanctioned program which includes many of Zaev’s cronies, family members and party officials. Regional media are sharing the excuse of the Interior Ministry under the “believe it or not” headline.