The Macedonian police recovered a large quantity of weapons and NLA uniforms in their vehicle.

[1] The town is located on a road that guards the water supply for the city of Skopje and the Kosovo border.

Weeks before the Macedonian police forces found several bunkers on the Kosovo border filled with weapons and ammunition including heavy weapons such as machine guns, RPGs, anti-tank mines, explosives and detonators, one bunker was found in the village of Blace, where Macedonian police was also fired upon by several men.

[7] Three of the men were identified as local Albanians, including Harun Aliu, while one was a citizen from Kosovo and all of them were said by the police to have been previously involved in illegal activities.

Aliu was the leader of the group,[8] a commander of the NLA during the conflict and was sentenced in absentia to life in prison for killing a police officer in 2008 in Skopje.