Law enforcement in Kyiv announced the discovery of a large drug trafficking market where drugs, including cocaine, ecstasy and hashish, were disguised as cosmetics. According to investigators, the group received more than one million hryvnias per month by importing their goods from Europe.
According to law enforcement, the drug business was organized by a 33-year-old Kyiv resident who currently lives abroad, from where he supplied the drugs. He involved six other participants in the illegal activity.
Drugs and psychotropic substances were disguised in household chemicals and cosmetics.
In March last year, law enforcement officers conducted the first stage of a special operation and detained three suspects, from whom they seized one million hryvnias worth of cocaine. Later, police documented the activities of four more people involved in drug trafficking.
On June 29, law enforcement officers in Kyiv conducted 10 simultaneous authorized searches of the suspects' residences and their cars: investigators seized over 80 grams of cocaine, 50 grams of methamphetamine, 100 MDMA pills, electronic scales, devices for packaging narcotics disguised as cosmetics, money in national and foreign currency, packaging materials, and "draft" notes.
The estimated value of the seized “goods” at “black” market prices is over 3.5 million hryvnias. The physical evidence has been sent for examination
Four members of the group were detained under Article 208 of the Criminal Procedure Code of Ukraine. They were charged with selling narcotic drugs by a group of persons (Part 2 of Article 307 of the Criminal Procedure Code). In addition, an indictment against one of the suspects is already being considered by the Obolonskyi District Court of Kyiv under a similar article.
They face up to 10 years in prison with confiscation of property. Police are identifying all individuals involved in the supply of drugs from Europe to Ukraine.
