VMRO-DPMNE Vice President Vladimir Misajlovski today revealed another element of the major scandal in which the Zaev regime was exposed issuing passports to criminals from the wider region. Misajlovski revealed that Waleed Issa Khamays, a wanted money launderer for the Italian mafia, was given a Macedonian passport under an assumed name in 2019.

Khamays is known as a key cocaine money launderer for the Italian mafia. The passport was issued to him on January 9 2019 in Skopje. Khamays arrived here, was photographed in the Interior Ministry, and was given a passport, Misajlovski said.

The name was taken from an actual Macedonian citizen, Tako Vurmo, who was born in Albania.

Since 2017, Waleed is a wanted man by a number of European countries. After he received a Macedonian passport, he used it to travel to Turkey through the Skopje airport. He is believed to reside in Mauritius, Misajlovski said, accusing the Zaev regime of turning Macedonia into “Colombia in the Balkans”.