Over two-thirds of the 27 tons of seized drugs came from a company owned by a staff of the opposition SDSM, an associate of former Prime Minister Zoran Zaev. The company CBD Medplant formally owned by Hristijan Kotev, and actually by his father Toni Kotev, nicknamed M’gchev, who is the former president of the SDSM in Strumica’s Novo Selo and close in business with Vice Zaev and Gidan Kolev, in the period from June to November 2025, has delivered 19 tons of marijuana to the Skopje factory according to a document for the delivered quantity. In addition, this morning 21 tons of drugs were taken out of the Strumica-based company, VMRO-DPMNE MP Brane Petrushevski pointed out Saturday.
“This is a company that received approval from the government led by Zoran Zaev and Venko Filipche to grow marijuana for medical purposes in 2020. By the way, back in 2020, we pointed out that licenses for growing marijuana for medical purposes are obtained exclusively based on closeness to SDS, that is, at that time with Zoran Zaev, Vice Zaev and Venko Filipche. At that time, the government led by Zaev and Filipche granted licenses to two companies, Eko Energy-Kosmos from Novo Selo and Lighting Lux from Strumica, also owned by Hristijan Kotev,” said Petrushevski.
The MP says that the ruling party is asking the Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the case following these suspicions and indications of a connection between SDSM, former party leader Zoran Zaev and the current leader Venko Filipche.
“We are looking for answers about the case with the seized narcotics, is there any involvement on the part of Zaev? Why was Zaev personally making phone calls at the Customs administration and was showing interest in this case? What is Vice Zaev’s involvement in this case? How much money did Zoran Zaev want to earn from this case? The Strumica narco cartel behaved like in the time of Pablo Escobar in Colombia,” MP Petrushevski underlined.
