Marijuana Lab Bust Near Smederevo: Six Arrested
The Drug Enforcement Service and the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit raided a facility in Vodanj near Smederevo and seized about half a tonne of marijuana. Six suspects are being held for up to 48 hours.
Police uncovered an illegal marijuana growing lab in a building in Vodanj, a suburb of Smederevo, and seized about half a tonne of the drug. Six people were arrested, all of them caught inside the facility where the lab was running.
The raid involved officers from the Interior Ministry Criminal Police Directorate, the Drug Enforcement Service and the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit, working alongside the Smederevo Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office. The seized marijuana was found both dried and raw, along with the full set of equipment used to grow it.
The Ministry of Interior (MUP) described the operation in a statement released on August 7.
“Officers of the Ministry of Interior, the Criminal Police Directorate and the Drug Enforcement Service, together with the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit and in cooperation with the Smederevo Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, uncovered an illegal marijuana growing laboratory and seized about half a tonne of the drug, arresting six people in the process.”
The statement came with several photos taken inside the facility. They show dozens of black bags lined up across the floor, plastic tanks with hoses running along the wall, canisters and air conditioning units.
Who was arrested in Vodanj
The suspects face charges of unauthorized production and distribution of narcotics. Police arrested:
- M. K. (1973)
- N. S. (1982)
- M. R. (1982)
- B. C. (1996)
- D. S. (1995)
- D. K. (1986)
The oldest suspect is 53, the youngest 30. All six were ordered held for up to 48 hours, after which they will be brought before the competent prosecutor’s office along with criminal charges. None of them has been found guilty of anything.
How half a tonne stacks up against past seizures
The Vodanj haul is several orders of magnitude bigger than what these operations usually turn up. Police earlier seized 45 kilograms of marijuana in Dobanovci, with three arrests, and that was already considered a large amount for a single police operation near Belgrade.
The gap shows up within the same day, too. Along with the Vodanj statement, MUP said police in Krusevac had arrested D. S. (1961) from Batocina after finding five bags holding about 5.5 kilograms of plant material suspected to be marijuana in the car he was driving. That is roughly one percent of the quantity found in Vodanj.
The marijuana seized in Vodanj was not packaged for a single sale. Part of it had already been dried, part was still raw, and the lab was equipped for irrigation and climate control, pointing to production running in cycles rather than a one time harvest.
What happens next
MUP has not said how long the lab in Vodanj had been operating, or who the drugs were meant for. Answering that falls to the Smederevo Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office, which has been involved in the case from the start.
For now, what is known is that all six suspects were caught on site and remain in police custody. Whether any of them has prior convictions for similar offenses has not been disclosed.
