GHERKINS USED AS A COVER FOR STORING 5 TONS OF DRUGS: Suspects could spend 20 years in prison!

Instead of buying gherkins from farmers and selling vegetable seedlings - which is what it was supposed to do - family-owned Florakom d.o.o. firm has turned out to be a front for drug smuggling, i.e., its premises served as the largest drugs warehouse discovered in the history of Serbia.

As the father and son, R.S. (68) and N.S. (40), were boasting about their company's agricultural production on the official website, the police found a record five tons of marijuana ready for sale the Belgrade market, hidden on Florakom's premises in the village of Konjuh.

The Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime stated that this criminal group stored drugs in the company's warehouses, from where they were distributed. That these were no run-of-the-mill marijuana smugglers is evident in the arsenal of weapons found, that included four automatic rifles and a portable rocket launcher. The street value of the confiscated drugs is estimated at 50 million euros.

One suspect at large, others facing decades in prison

In addition to the father and son this major police operation also resulted in the arrest of I.D., while another suspect - believed to be the organizer - is currently on the run.

If found guilty, the legal outcome for those who participated in the group wil be harsh:

Since this is a case of organized crime, and a record amount of narcotics has been seized, they each face a minimum of 10 years in prison.

Along with the charges of possession of military-grade weapons, the Prosecutor's Office will seek maximum concurrent sentences of 20 years.

Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said that this is a historic achievement for the Serbian police and stressed that the priority was "to remove five tons of poison from the streets."

After spending up to 48 hours in police detention, the suspects will be brought to the Public Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime in Belgrade.

(Telegraf.rs)