SKOPJE, FYROM, Sep 7 – FYROM authorities said 19 officers at border crossings have been arrested for allegedly demanding bribes to let visitors enter the country. Sixteen were ethnic Albanians.
Police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said those arrests brought to 58 the number of FYROM police and customs officers detained in an anti-corruption drive over the past 10 days.
The suspects allegedly demanded bribes to let tourist groups through without any checks, or else pretended that visitors’ travel documents were invalid.
Kotevski said the 16 suspects were taken into custody at the Qafe Thane crossing, on FYROM’s southern border with Albania, following a seven-month surveillance operation.
The others were arrested at Tabanovce, on FYROM’s border with Serbia.
If convicted, the guards face up to five years in prison.
Ethnic Albanian border police and customs officers arrested in Macedonia
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