The Macedonian mafia () is a body of illegal gangs and criminal organizations operating in North Macedonia and within the Macedonian diaspora. The organizations are primarily involved in smuggling, arms trafficking, heists, drug trafficking, protection rackets, and illegal gambling. The mafia comprises several major organized groups, which in turn have wider networks in Macedonia and throughout Europe.
History
Criminal activities began in Macedonia while it was occupied by the Ottoman Empire. Informal groups of bandits with names like “Ajduci - Ајдуци” (Macedonian bandit groups) and “Bashibozuk - Başıbozuk” (Turkish bandit groups) engaged in war activities, robberies, kidnappings, and sometimes fought each other. The groups were named for their leader, but an Albanian bandit group also was active in Macedonia named “Arnauti - Aranuts” from Turkish dialect.
From 1918 to 1942, Macedonian opium was one of the highest quality in the world because of suitable soil and river alluvium. From the statistics of public documents of that time, the producers of opium between the two world wars satisfied 43% of the demand of the global legal processing industry, and later Yugoslav-Turkish cooperation covered 80% of the world countries needed, on an annual basis. This amounted to an average of 42 tons of opium, which was worth around 29 million dinars, which corresponded to the average budget revenues of the whole called “Vardarska Banovina”. That's why today Macedonia from that period is called “Balkan Colombia” Because eight tons of opium were smuggled in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia every year, it can be concluded that almost a quarter of the legal production was released into illegal trade market if there are added other drugs and their illegal channels: heroin, morphine, and codeine. In the USA, were was the connection of the Belgrade and Skopje criminal organizations with the leading European drug transport networks across the Atlantic, then the increasing interest of the American diplomacy in the situation in Yugoslavia from the end of 1937 became understandable, where the opium trade was controlled by Italian-American Mafia, during the war these drug channels for smuggling opium into the US were cut off. In the meantime, control and primacy were taken by other countries that were competitive in this business; the assumptions led to the facts in that period, then were engaged and main characters of the Macedonian Revolutionary Organization VMRO that is also an interesting fact.
After the War in Macedonia in 2001, many criminals were killed who were infiltrated in weapons trade, drug trade and war activities.
In 2006 Macedonian police in action "Jug" seized the David Beckham's SUV in Debar, the luxury BMW X5 was stolen in the Spanish capital where Beckham played for Real Madrid. It was among five vehicles seized at the Macedonia-Albania border in a raid on a human-smuggling gang.
On 7 January 2007, a shipment of 486 kg of cocaine which was traveling from Venezuela to Greece was caught at the Blace border crossing in a truck that was transporting polycolor cans The value of the seized drug shipment was 92 million euros. The accused, arrested and convicted in that case was Stanislava Chochorovska Poletan and the truck driver. Macedonia Jails Cocaine Smugglers
In 2010 for planning the kidnapping of José Mourinho were suspected Macedonian citizens. Criminals had taken photos and videos of the football boss movements around his villa beside Italy's Lake Como; they had also been watching and filming him as he drove in his car and on the training ground at Inter Milan. Police believe they caught the gang, who have Mafia links, as they prepared to kidnap Mourinho, or raid the home where he lives with wife Matilde and their two children. A gang of four Macedonians is suspected of carrying out two recent robberies of businessmen, stealing property worth more than £350,000. They are also believed to have been watching four Atalanta footballers and other Italian celebrities. Their plot was uncovered when police raided the gypsy camp where they lived.
After the arrest of leaders of the Frankfurt mafia in 2010, the most significant Macedonian criminal organization was created in Veles, and infiltrated in Germany and Austria with heroin trade, was destroyed the connection of criminal organizations in North Macedonia.