Following a historic seizure of five tons of marijuana in the village of Konjuh near Krusevac, as many as 15 ranking officers from the narcotics division of Serbia’s Criminal Police Directorate (UKP) have been sidelined from the division, an investigation by KRIK revealed. Journalists obtained a letter that these officers sent to Serbian Prime Minister Djuro Macut, detailing how UKP chief Marko Kricak has “destroyed” their division and how they are facing severe retaliation for uncovering a massive drug cache on the property of a local official from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), KRIK reported.
Oglas
A group of officers, led by the former head of the UKP narcotics division, Radomir Popovic, and his deputy, Nikola Djokovic, requested a meeting with Prime Minister Djuro Macut in early September of this year, according to KRIK.
In early 2026, these officers executed the largest drug bust in Serbian history and one of the largest ever recorded in Europe, uncovering five tons of marijuana on a farm owned by a local councilor from the ruling SNS in Konjuh, a village just outside Krusevac, KRIK said.
Following the bust, the team assisted law enforcement in North Macedonia to intercept and seize an additional 40 tons of narcotics controlled by the same criminal enterprise. According to police estimates, these operations inflicted financial losses exceeding 150 million euros on the criminal syndicate.
However, instead of receiving commendations and promotions for their historic achievement, the officers faced administrative punishment. Their new boss, Marko Kricak, who assumed command of the UKP just a month before the operation, immediately moved to dismantle the highly successful law enforcement unit.
KRIK has learned that 15 ranking officers who led the operation have been reassigned to disparate, low-profile positions across the police force. Chief Popovic was reassigned to the War Crimes Division, while his deputy, Djokovic, was reassigned to the Traffic Police. The remaining officers were scattered across various unrelated departments, including the Border Police, the Directorate for Administrative Affairs, the Technical Directorate, the Novi Sad Police Directorate, and the Anti-Corruption Division in Pancevo.
KRIK pointed out that this is one of the largest internal police purges carried out during the tenure of the ruling SNS. The officers were never given any formal explanation as to why they were barred from continuing their narcotics work immediately after pulling off such a monumental success against drug trafficking, KRIK said.
Furthermore, the wives of several sidelined officers, who are also employed within the police force, have been removed from their respective positions. The officers also warn that their personal safety is now severely compromised.
In a desperate search for answers, the officers requested urgent meetings with both the police director and the internal affairs minister but received no response from either.
Prime Minister Djuro Macut similarly turned a deaf ear and refused to meet with them, KRIK reported.
KRIK has published exclusive excerpts from the written correspondence sent to the Prime Minister, detailing the immense professional pressure the team faced immediately after the Konjuh seizure.
By way of background, after police seized two tons of marijuana in Belgrade and arrested two low-level members of the cartel in August 2025, the officers pushed the investigation up the supply chain to trace the source of the drugs.
Following the trail, investigators arrived at the village of Konjuh near Krusevac, which served as the distribution epicenter for wholesale marijuana. The marijuana itself was not produced in Serbia; it was cultivated in North Macedonia and smuggled into Konjuh for bulk storage. From there, the narcotics were distributed to buyers across Serbia and the European Union.
The stash houses in Konjuh consisted of a residential home and an agricultural estate owned by Nebojsa Spasojevic and his father, Rade Spasojevic - a Krusevac city councilor for the ruling SNS who is known to be a close associate of Serbian caretaker Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic.
The individual identified by police and prosecutors as the kingpin of the syndicate, Aleksandar Mijajlovic, initially fled Serbia to evade arrest but was tracked down and apprehended by Austrian police in July. According to the investigation, Mijajlovic had directly instructed the Spasojevics to secure and manage the drug storage facility.
On the property, investigators discovered corporate documents belonging to “Alphapharm Group,” a North Macedonian company used as a front operation to cultivate and source the drugs destined for smuggling into Serbia. The company held a legitimate license in North Macedonia to cultivate medical-grade cannabis. According to the indictment, that license was systematically abused to smuggle black-market marijuana directly across the border into Serbia.
Serbian officers relayed these critical intelligence leaks to their counterparts in North Macedonia, triggering a secondary wave of high-profile arrests and the seizure of an additional 40 tons of marijuana.
Teme