ISIS-linked criminal group smashed in Skopje: 5 arrested; automatic rifles, sniper rifle and the organization’s flag seized

North Macedonia’s police have smashed an organized criminal group from Skopje linked to the terrorist organization ISIS, the Interior Ministry announced in a statement carried by Makfax.

The operation took place on 28 September and was coordinated by the Directorate for Combating Organized and Serious Crime, in cooperation with the National Security Agency, the Department for Special Police Operations and the Skopje police, under the leadership of a competent prosecutor from the Basic Public Prosecutor’s Office for Prosecuting Organized Crime and Corruption.

Acting on search warrants from the preliminary-procedure judge, raids were carried out on six individuals at a total of 12 locations across Skopje, where five people were arrested. The searches uncovered and seized automatic rifles, automatic-rifle frames, a sniper rifle and its frame, pistols, ammunition of various calibers, a tactical vest, radio-communications equipment, the official ISIS flag, a large quantity of electronic devices and mobile phones, as well as significant sums of cash in denars and foreign currency. Unauthorized use of electricity was also discovered.

According to the National Security Agency, the raids were carried out in Singelić, Čair and the village of Brest, where computer units for cryptocurrency “mining” and documentation were also found, as denesmagazin.mk reports.

It concerns a radical religious grouping linked to transnational criminal organizations, suspected of violence, extortion, kidnappings, loan-sharking and illegal drug and arms trafficking; several of those arrested maintain close ties to foreign terrorist fighters from the country and the region.

According to the Interior Ministry, K.I. (34) began his activity in 2023 within a criminal organization — a branch with an ISIS ideological matrix — aimed at committing crimes on the country’s territory. As an ISIS member, he indoctrinated young people for the organization’s goals, distributed propaganda material with extreme and radical content, and procured and used firearms. B.A. (24) and E.S. (30), together with K.I., had formed a group that held, brokered and traded firearms and ammunition without a license.

On 29 September, the Sector for Combating Terrorism, Violent Extremism and Radicalization filed criminal charges with the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office: against K.I. (34) for “terrorism” and “unauthorized production, possession, brokering and trade of weapons or explosive materials”, and against B.A. (24) and E.S. (30) for the latter offense.

The National Security Agency stresses that the indoctrination of youths by prominent members of the group is an ongoing modus operandi, with radical religious sites and online radicalization as the starting points of recruitment.