Seven people detained in one night, at multiple locations across Skopje. Marijuana, a white powdered substance and a brown powdered substance were found and seized. The age range runs from 18 to 57.

The operation was carried out overnight between 12 and 13 September. According to official figures, six of those detained are from Skopje - aged 41, 57, 40, 34, 47 and 18 - along with one 31-year-old Turkish citizen. Charges will follow once the cases are fully documented.

It is the number that catches the eye. Not one, not two - seven people in a single night, at different locations. That is not a random street check. That is a night when the police knew exactly where to go.

The youngest of them deserves a second look: eighteen years old. Barely an adult, and already in police records for drugs. It reads as a line of statistics in a press release, but it is really a story about how early in life you reach this circle in Skopje.

What is missing is context. How much material was actually seized - grams, kilograms? Are the seven connected to each other, or are these seven separate cases that happened to fall on the same night? Is any of them a dealer, or are they all users? The difference is enormous, and the statement does not make it. And that difference is precisely what tells you whether the state is catching a network or only catching the people who are easiest to catch.

A night like this always sounds like a success. But success is measured by what happens next week - whether the supply stops arriving, or whether only the names change in the next press release.