The Security Service of Ukraine and law enforcement agencies of the Republic of Poland have dismantled a transnational channel for smuggling precursors into Ukraine for manufacture and sale of hard psychotropic drugs.

As a result of a special operation in both countries, 10 members of the transnational drug ring have been detained. They were transporting wholesale shipments of pseudoephedrine to Zaporizhzhia.

The gang’s monthly ‘profit’ exceeded USD 100,000.

To conceal the import of the precursor into Ukraine, the perpetrators hid it in containers of baby food and animal feed.

They delivered the disguised ‘parcels’ to their accomplices in Ukraine via regular buses or postal services.

The average weight of a shipment was 5 kg, which is 50,000 pills of prohibited drugs containing the precursor pseudoephedrine.

After receiving the contraband, the traffickers sold part of the drugs through a network of dealers. They also left the precursors in a drug lab in Dnipropetrovsk region, where they were used to manufacture amphetamine.

The SSU, together with Polish law enforcement agencies, documented the operation of the drug trafficking ring, identified all its members and apprehended them during a special operation.

Six suspects were detained in the EU, and four more, including the ringleader, were detained in Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Rih.

According to the investigation, the organizers were two brothers from Zaporizhzhia. One of them left for the EU in early 2022, where he formed a foreign wing, responsible for smuggling precursors into Ukraine.

His brother remained in Zaporizhzhia to coordinate the ‘import’ of prohibited substances and their sale in our country.

Precursors prepared for sale and psychotropic substances produced using them, as well as equipment for synthesizing narcotic substances, were found during the searches of the suspects’ homes in Ukraine and the EU.

SSU investigators have notified the detainees in Ukraine of suspicion under the Articles of the CCU:

• 305.3 (smuggling of precursors);
• 307.3 (illegal manufacture, acquisition, storage, transportation, transfer or sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues);
• 311.3 (illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, storage, transportation or transfer of precursors);
• 317.2 (organization or maintenance of places for the illegal use, production or manufacture of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues).

The suspects are in custody and face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

Those detained abroad are being prosecuted in accordance with EU legislation.

The special operation was carried out by the SSU Office in Zaporizhzhia region, coordinated by the SSU Main Investigation Directorate under the procedural supervision of the regional Prosecutor’s Office.