TV21 is reporting that Shevalj Muaremi, head of the notorious Grcec drug clan that operates out of Macedonia, was arrested in Dubai.

An arrest warrant was issued for Muaremi a month ago. It was widely reported that he is living in Dubai, after a spectacularly failed police raid on the village of Grcec, near Skopje, in 2022. The raid was leaked to the gang and the ringleaders were given ample time to flee the village and the country.

The Grcec/Dukangjik clan is involved in a massive and quickly escalating gang war against their chief rivals from the Baron/Belanoca gang. Half a dozen mobsters were killed over the past few years, in attacks that involved attacks in the Skopje Alexander Palace hotel, two attacks in the busy East Gate Mall in Skopje, a machine gun assassination in a crowded shisha bar in Skopje, a killing in the Greek resort of Hanioti. The groups are involved in shipping cocaine from Latin America to the European market, as well as more traditional trade with heroin and other types of drugs. The police has been powerless to stop the gangs, and the few attempts to raid Grcec were conducted in a way that even casual followers of news reports knew that a raid is being prepared – apparently because of infiltration of the police and prosecution by the gangs.