The court accepted the proposals of the Public Prosecutor's Office to impose a 30-day detention on the seven-member organized criminal group, which is suspected of having committed crimes of smuggling migrants on the territory of the state.

As reported by the Public Prosecutor's Office, the action with the code name "Kipper" is the result of a pre-investigation procedure that was carried out from September 2023 to June of this year, in which five people were deprived of their freedom, one person is already serving a detention measure in the KPU Skopje prison for the crime of "smuggling migrants", while the other person who is on the run has been sentenced to detention in absentia in another criminal-legal event. During the searches, a passenger motor vehicle, powdery substance, scales and mobile phone devices that the persons used to commit the crime were found and confiscated.

- The public prosecutor in question issued an Order for the implementation of an investigative procedure against six Macedonian and one Serbian citizen. There is a well-founded suspicion that the first suspect, as the organizer of the criminal group, is the perpetrator of the crimes "Organizing a group and encouraging the commission of the crimes of human trafficking, child trafficking and smuggling of migrants" under Article 418c and "Smuggling of migrants" under Article 418-b, five of the other suspects are charged with being perpetrators of the same crimes as members of the group, while the seventh suspect is charged with helping to commit the crime of "Organizing a group and encouraging the commission of human trafficking" , child trafficking and smuggling of migrants," the announcement states.

According to the provided evidence from the pre-investigation procedure during 2023 and 2024, the Prosecutor's Office added, the first suspect together with two persons - foreign citizens, namely one identified person of origin from Pakistan and N.N, a citizen of the Republic of Serbia, joined together and organized an international criminal group in the country.

According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, this group was part of an international criminal network, which for the purpose of acquiring property benefit with pre-determined tasks committed criminal acts of smuggling migrants. In the time period from September 2023 to June this year, the suspects organized the illegal transfer of groups of migrant citizens from Syria and other countries from the near and far east and countries from Africa - Iraq, Congo and Nigeria through illegal crossings of the so-called "green border".

- The first suspect, in an organized and pre-arranged and established way of telephone communication, using telephone numbers from Serbian mobile operators and internet communication, together with the other two organizers of the criminal group, planned and agreed on the number of migrants who would be transported to the territory of the RS .Macedonia, while agreeing on the locations where they will be transported, the time and the place - the exact location where the migrants were ready for acceptance and further transportation to the Kumanovo-Lipkovo region. With the help of so-called guides "climbers", the migrants were coordinated and guided to previously determined and agreed locations, from where the "climbers" sent the location to the organizers. The first suspect informed the other members of the group and gave them tasks to secure trucks and make improvised bunkers in them for accepting and transporting the migrants, and he gave the seventh suspect, a member of the group, the task of receiving and withdrawing the money paid for the successful completion smuggling of migrants through the territory of the Republic of Macedonia. After the illegal migrants were transported to the previously agreed locations, the first suspect, in agreement with the organizer N.N person from the Republic of Serbia, organized the further acceptance and smuggling by R.S. Macedonia in the Republic of Serbia, it is stated in the announcement of the Public Prosecutor's Office.

Today, the five suspects were brought before a judge for preliminary proceedings at the Basic Criminal Court - Skopje. One person is already serving a measure of detention in KPU Prison Skopje for the crime of "smuggling migrants", and the other person, who is on the run, has been ordered to be detained in absentia in another criminal-legal event.