The Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecution of Organised Crime and Corruption has opened an investigation against 18 members of the Bellanoca-Baron clan.
According to the institution, they are suspected of having organised, from 2020 to 2024, eight murders, while three people were wounded and the life of as many was endangered. On Monday, too, police conducted searches and arrests at several settlements in Skopje, including Aracinovo and Cair. 14 are suspected of ordering the hits or directly committing the murders, while 12 of them are also suspected of criminal association. The rest have been charged with extortion.
The Office believes that the prime suspect, Fatlum Ajeti (aka Tote), who’s currently behind bars, as the gang leader, created, together with four other people, two and one of whom are detained and deceased, respectively a group aiming to commit murders.
“The criminal group’s organisers would make plans and decisions on who will be murdered, and where, when, and how. They would carry out the decisions individually or through other members of the group, paying 10-250 thousand euros for a murder”, the Office said in Monday’s press-release.
The group is suspected of murder, usury, cases of arson in relation to sports betting shops and cars of police officers and prison police members, as well as threats against people. The Office has requested a detention measure against four of the detained persons, while three suspects are behind bars, and two others are detained over other cases.
At a press-conference, Interior Minister Pance Toskovski said the searches had seen evidence secured about multiple murders, including the 6 March 2023 one at the bar in Skopje’s Old Bazaar. As he noted, the group’s members were responsible for a major number of murders and attempted murders.