The Interior Ministry revealed details about the theft of two tons of marijuana from a plantation near Valandovo. Of the six people involved in the high stakes robbery, only have been detained, and some remain unidentified.

The attack was perpetrated on Friday, when three still unidentified men attacked the guard at the Herb Industry warehouse in the village of Josifovo near Valandovo. After overpowering and restraining the guard, they stole just under two tons of marijuana – in some earlier reports it was said that there were four tons in total and loaded it in a truck on which they put different licence plates.

Two of the men who are identified and an unidentified driver then took the drugs to Skopje and unloaded about 200 kilograms and stored them in a house near Aracinovo. The shipment was seized in a major police operation two days ago.

Herb Industry is registered in Strumica, which is becoming a boom town for marijuana, especially with the Zaev regime awarding licences to family members and cronies to grow the drug for the production of cannabis oil. With the expansion of the marijuana business, many have warned that crime and corruption will follow, especially as the drug has a much greater value on the black market.