In the summer of 2022 police raided two cannabis plantations near Lake Ohrid within 48 hours.[1] Both plantations held licences to grow cannabis for medical use.[1] Criminal police with the medical-cannabis commission and Ohrid police searched a legal entity in Orovnik, Debrca municipality on a court order.[2] Officers then searched a facility in Drsalajca, Struga municipality, closing its medical-cannabis factory.[3] The action in Drsalajca took place in a building in that village.[3] The Ohrid farm was operated by Greengo 2018 with three owners while the Struga farm was the property of Green and Bio Farm with two owners.[1] Permits were revoked after the raids and Struga prosecutors opened investigations into both firms for regulatory violations and illegal drug production and trade.[1]

In the Orovnik safe room officers found 343 kg of dry flower, 7 kg more than recorded.[2] In the attic officers found vessels used for cannabis-oil production although the firm had no permit for such oil.[2] At Drsalajca the video did not cover the whole facility and the fence had holes allowing unimpeded entry and exit.[3] Officers found 3,442 outdoor plants without protection against 4,304 reported.[3] Officers found another 1,007 plants plus seedlings in an outer parcel where the firm had only an expansion permit, not a planting permit.[3] Health-ministry experts said those Drsalajca plants could have produced about 2.5 tons worth five million euros on the black market.[3] In the Orovnik case a prosecutor was notified and all items were seized.[2] In the Struga case a prosecutor was notified and all items were seized.[3]

North Macedonia legalised medical cultivation in 2015 with a five-person health-ministry commission tracking production and inspecting plantations twice a year.[1] By 2021 more than 60 firms held permits under strict record-keeping, surveillance and fencing rules, with around half producing.[1] The violations uncovered suggested much of the product was heading to the illegal market.[1] A settlement was reached in the first case while the second remained in regular procedure.[1]