Zoran Zaev’s cousin Trajce Zaev, one of the key figures in the family’s businesses including in marijuana growing, confirmed that he is in Dubai. The opposition VMRO-DPMNE party revealed at a press conference today that Trajce Zaev is not in the country and asked about his involvement in the seizure of 200 kilograms of marijuana on Friday.

In his response, which he shared over social media, Trajce Zaev claims that he is in the United Arab Emirates since mid March on a business trip and tries to distance himself from the arrested individuals and the drug shipment.

The van that was named in the police raid is not the property of a Zaev owned business. None of those arrested works in a Zaev owned company. I’m in the United Arab Emirates on a business trip that started on March 23, to open new markets for our companies and export Macedonian products, Trajce Zaev said in his statement.

It is reported that another key business figure from the “ruling family” Boban Zaev is with him. The arrests on Friday were aimed against a shipment from the Medical 420 marijuana farm near Bitola. Trajce Zaev owns a company named Medical 420 BG, incorporated in Bulgaria, under a scheme which is believed to offer some level of distance between the Zaev family and the marijuana farms they operate, and plausible deniability in case things go south. One of the arrested is Trajce Zaev’s personal driver Aleksandar Usilkovski (both pictured), and the other is the police commissioner of Prilep Kiril Spirkoski, appointed to this position by the Zaev regime.