A driver with a Macedonian passport, who was driving a truck that was supposed to deliver a diplomatic shipment to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was stopped and inspected at the Slovenian-Italian border, where cigarettes and alcohol were found, the portal reported. MKD.mk, citing its own sources.

According to the article, during the routine border procedures, the driver, who had a Macedonian passport, showed documents stating that the truck was carrying diplomatic mail to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. But The Italian border guards had something suspicious, so they examined it with a scanner, which is not a common practice when it comes to diplomatic missions.

Instead of the stated shipment, which can mean everything from real mail and documents to equipment and furniture for embassies, consulates and apartments of diplomats abroad or means and equipment for renovation, the Italians found a large quantity of cigarettes and alcoholic beverages in the truck, "covered" with diplomatic stamps, seals and documents. According to the sources of MKD.mk, the truck left Skopje, and was loaded with excise goods in Serbia. The scanner showed an inappropriate amount of bottles for a diplomatic shipment. The driver is in custody, and the case is being investigated there. The Macedonian Foreign Ministry was informed diplomatically by the Italian authorities.

This was not the only case, sources claim It is a developed channel of a certain group in which persons from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs are involved, in order to cover the smuggling of excisable goods with diplomatic immunity. Cigarettes and alcoholic beverages in EU countries on the black markets reach high amounts, writes MKD.mk.

A scandal related to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also happened this summer, when Mile Milenkoski was arrested in Serbia, the deputy head of the Macedonian mission to the OSCE in Vienna, who, according to Austrian authorities, was involved in extracting a controversial oligarch from Armenia several years ago.

In September, in a car driven by two Macedonian police officers, on the border between Albania and Montenegro a large amount of drugs was found, for which the Ministry of Interior then explained that it remained undiscovered under the car seat for five years, seized in 2016 by the Customs Administration.