A Skopje company, an Austrian citizen and a 52-year-old man from Gevgelija dug a 600-metre trench and laid electrical cables in the villages of Pepeliste and Vojshanci near Negotino - without a single permit, without a single denar paid in regulatory fees. Criminal charges have been filed under article 244 for "illegal construction".

The numbers speak for themselves. The sum that should have been paid in fees - 1,502,981 denars. The damage to the municipality - over 1.5 million denars. The names of those involved with initials (per Macedonian practice) - V.M. from Austria, listed as the "responsible person" in the legal entity, and R.M., 52, director of the branch office in Kavadarci.

The question that follows - how much of "600 metres of trench" is visible on drone footage, and why didn't anyone from the municipality react while the work was being done? You don't dig 600 metres in five minutes, nor do you lay electrical cables in the quiet of the night. It's a process that takes days, weeks in the worst case. And nobody saw, nobody reported, until it was already too late.

For the local community, this is a direct reminder - illegal construction is not a 90s phenomenon, illegal construction is here and now, and it won't be stopped with one more criminal complaint. It only gets stopped if the municipal inspectorate becomes visible before the work is done, not three months after.