Bulgarian police have uncovered a huge illegal marijuana plantation inside a former zinc mine. The site is close to the border with Macedonia. An underground "secret empire" - dozens of tunnels, lighting, irrigation systems. And 600,000 euros in cash seized on the spot.

This isn't an amateur operation. This is industrial-scale organised production. Converting an old mining complex into an underground drug farm is a complex infrastructure project. Power, ventilation, water, security - everything has to be planned. Everything has to be paid for. The team behind this isn't accidental.

According to Bulgarian reports, the plantation produced tens of kilograms of marijuana per month. Distribution - regional. Across the borders with Macedonia, Greece, Turkey. Packers and couriers in several countries. A classic Balkan organised-crime scheme, with one specific advantage - an unused industrial space that nobody is monitoring.

Why this mine in particular? Because it had been abandoned for years. The old zinc mines in this region lost their relevance at the end of the 1970s, when industry in Bulgaria and Macedonia collapsed. Nobody followed what happened to that infrastructure. Organised crime took advantage.

For Macedonia this should be a direct signal. We have dozens of abandoned mines, factories and industrial complexes across the country. They are not just ruins - they are potential venues for criminal operations. Is anyone monitoring them? Does anyone even know how many there are and where? Questions the government should be asking itself.

Bulgarian police uncovered the case after months of intelligence work. The team was professional. The 600,000 euros seized is only a small fraction of the total turnover. The rest is "laundered" through middlemen, real investments, real estate. This is modern crime in a Balkan context - complex, organised, hard to detect. And precisely because of that - growing, not shrinking.