North Macedonia: Police seize some 16,000 cannabis plants

SKOPJE, North Macedonia (AP) — Police in North Macedonia say they have uprooted thousands of cannabis plants illegally cultivated near a village, adding that the marijuana that could have been harvested from them had a street value of about 5 million euros ($5.2 million). A police statement Tuesday said it was one of the largest seizures of the kind in North Macedonia since the country declared independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Three men were arrested in connection with the raid. If tried and convicted they face minimum five-year prison sentences. The arrests followed raids in the village of Karbinci on Monday, about 100 kilometers south-east of the capital, Skopje. Police uprooted some 16,000 plants.