Macedonian police, within the operation 'Conductor, carried out in cooperation with the Austrian and German law enforcers in charge of combating drug trafficking, yesterday searched the homes of 18 persons and brought criminal charges against 16 of them.

Police had evidence for an involvement of 43 persons in illicit heroin trafficking and seized a total of 13,5 kilos of heroin and about two kilos of cocaine, Interior Minister Gordana Jankuloska told a pres conference on Wednesday. Thirteen persons have been arrested in Austria. The police also seized 10 kilos of heroin and money during the raids.

Three criminal groups from Macedonia, namely from Skopje, Aracinovo, Veles and Kumanovo, are involved in the heroin-trafficking ring, Public Security Bureau Director Ljupco Todorovski said. The groups have been in charge of recruiting young people without police record, training and sending them to Vienna, most often with Bulgarian passports, he said.

Austrian police chief Franz Lang praised the high professionalism of the Macedonian police, saying that successful operations of such magnitude have not been registered thus far with any South-East European country. The ties with Macedonian police open the road for bolstering Austria's cooperation in this sphere with the other countries of the region, Lang said.