Following the historic seizure of five tons of marijuana in the village of Konjuh near Kruševac, as many as 15 senior officers from the Drug Enforcement Service of the Criminal Police Directorate (UKP) have been removed from the unit, KRIK reveals. Journalists obtained a letter these officers sent to Serbian Prime Minister Đuro Macut, in which they say that UKP chief Marko Kričak has “destroyed” their unit and that they are facing pressure because they uncovered this major drug storage facility on property belonging to an SNS councilor, KRIK reports.
A group of police officers led by former head of the Drug Enforcement Service of the Criminal Police Directorate (UKP), Radomir Popović, and his deputy, Nikola Đoković, sought a meeting with Prime Minister Đuro Macut in early September this year, KRIK reports.
In early 2026, these officers carried out the largest drug seizure in Serbia’s history and one of the largest in Europe, finding five tons of marijuana on property belonging to a local councilor from the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) in Konjuh, a village near Kruševac, the outlet notes.
They subsequently helped colleagues in North Macedonia uncover and seize more than 40 additional tons of drugs controlled by the same criminal group. According to the police, these operations inflicted losses of more than 150 million euros on the criminals.
However, the officers were not rewarded or recognized following this historic operation. Instead, they faced punishment. Their new boss, Marko Kričak, who had become head of the UKP just one month before the operation, immediately began dismantling this successful police unit, KRIK reports.
According to KRIK, 15 senior officers from the unit who led the operation were reassigned to other positions within the police. Head Radomir Popović was transferred to the War Crimes Service, while his deputy, Nikola Đoković, was moved to the traffic police. The others were reassigned to various departments, including border police, the Administrative Affairs Directorate, the Technical Directorate, the Novi Sad Police Department, and the anti-corruption unit in Pančevo.
This is described as one of the largest “purges” within the police during the Serbian Progressive Party’s time in power. The officers were never given an explanation, KRIK further reports, as to why they were prevented from continuing their work against drug trafficking after such a major success.
The wives of some of the officers, who also work for the police, were reportedly removed from their positions as well. The officers also complain that their safety has been put at risk.
In an attempt to obtain answers, the officers requested meetings with both the police director and the minister, but neither responded.
Prime Minister Đuro Macut also showed no willingness to meet with them, the report states.
KRIK is now exclusively publishing excerpts from the letter the officers sent to the Serbian prime minister, describing the problems they have faced since the drug seizure in Konjuh.
A Letter About the “Destruction of the Unit”
“We are writing to you with a request to receive us for a meeting regarding developments within the Ministry of Internal Affairs since Marko Kričak was appointed head of the Criminal Police Directorate,” states the letter signed by 13 police officers, most of whom have more than 20 years of service.
They stated that these developments, namely the removal of the Drug Enforcement Service’s leadership, “endanger all citizens of Serbia, and especially us, the signatories, and our families.”
“For 11 years, we led the Drug Enforcement Service within the Criminal Police Directorate and handled the most complex investigations, as well as coordinating the fight against drugs at the national and international levels,” they wrote to the Serbian prime minister, reminding him of the major police operations in which they had participated, including the 2023 international operation against the Balkan Cartel involving the smuggling of more than seven tons of cocaine, KRIK reports.
According to the letter, the problems began after the police unit seized as much as five tons of marijuana at the home of an SNS councilor from Kruševac.
“The key event is the now widely known seizure of five tons of marijuana in Konjuh, followed, based on our information, by the seizure of more than 40 tons of marijuana in the Republic of North Macedonia,” the letter to the prime minister states.
“Immediately after that seizure, specifically the following day, the destruction of the unit began. The head of the service, the deputy head, the heads and deputy heads of all four departments within the service, as well as five section chiefs, were removed,” the officers explain, adding that this was not the end of the matter. “After we were removed, pressure began, along with the reassignment of our wives, who are employed by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as well as various other forms of pressure.”
“We emphasize that the events described above, following the largest marijuana seizure ever, call into question the physical safety of us and our families, because this treatment has left us to fight the mafia on our own. As a result of the seizure, the criminal group lost hundreds of millions of euros in annual revenue, along with the entire logistical network that had been operating for years,” the officers state at the end of their letter.
However, this did not move the prime minister, who has ignored the officers’ request for a meeting to this day, KRIK notes.
After police seized two tons of marijuana in Belgrade in August 2025 and arrested two lower-ranking members of the criminal group, they continued investigating the case to establish where the drugs had come from.
Following the trail, the officers reached the village of Konjuh near Kruševac, which had become a center for the wholesale distribution of marijuana. The marijuana itself had not been produced in Serbia but in North Macedonia, from where it was smuggled into Konjuh and stored. The drugs were then transported onward to buyers across Serbia and the European Union.
The drug storage facilities in Konjuh were located at the family home and agricultural property of Nebojša Spasojević and his father, Rade Spasojević, an SNS councilor in Kruševac who is close to Bratislav Gašić.
Aleksandar Mijajlović, identified by the police and prosecutors as the head of the group, fled Serbia and evaded arrest, but Austrian police found and arrested him in July. According to the investigation, Mijajlović had instructed the Spasojevićs to provide storage facilities for the drugs.
At the property, police found documents belonging to Alphapharm Group, a company from North Macedonia that was used as a front for producing and procuring drugs intended for smuggling into Serbia. The company had a license in North Macedonia to grow marijuana for medical purposes. According to the indictment, that license was abused, and the company’s marijuana was smuggled into Serbia and ended up on the black market.
The Serbian police passed this information on to their colleagues in the neighboring country, leading to further major arrests and the seizure of, according to police, more than 40 additional tons of marijuana.
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Source: Krik, Foto: MUP
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