Special operation to seize 368 kg of heroin: a third member of the drug group was detained
He was also a citizen of Turkey, born in 1948. The third participant in the drug group will be selected as a preventive measure.
For two of his accomplices, who were detained by law enforcement officers on July 22, the court has already chosen a preventive measure - detention without the right to make bail. A complex of investigative and operational actions is ongoing.
Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky noted that 1.5 million doses of heroin did not reach Ukraine and Europe.
“These are thousands of lives saved from overdose, from addiction, from death. I want to thank personally the staff of the Department of Drug Enforcement who have been documenting this crime for more than a year. Special thanks to the investigators, experts, representatives of the State Customs Service, the Office of the Prosecutor General and of course to our colleagues - law enforcement officers from Georgia and Armenia,” the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs noted.
“The Department for Combating Drug Crimes for more than a year carried out measures to document the illegal activities of a criminal group, whose members are engaged in smuggling a particularly dangerous drug - heroin. Thanks to the coordinated work of Ukrainian law enforcement officers, the Customs Service, the prosecutor's office and fellow law enforcement officers from Georgia and Armenia, a joint operation was carried out and the organizers were detained,” said Serhiy Fedchenko, head of the Department for Combating Narcotics Crimes of the National Police.
Deputy Head of the Department for Combating Drug Crimes of the National Police Vyacheslav Safonov said that 368 kg of heroin were found and seized, which at the price of the “black market” amounts to more than UAH 1 billion.
According to him, the cargo was disguised in hollow bricks. “Briquettes with heroin from the Islamic Republic of Iran entered the territory of Armenia, where they were disguised as hollow bricks and shipped to a car bound for Georgia. By ferry from Georgia, it was delivered to Ukraine, where the narcotic substance was packaged in smaller batches and planned to be exported to European countries,” he said.
Vyacheslav Safonov also said that according to Ukrainian legislation, first the entire batch of drugs will be sent for expert research, where they will establish the percentage share of the pure substance, then they will be included as material evidence in the materials of criminal proceedings and by a court decision it will be destroyed.
The head of the department for combating drug transit of the Central Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia noted that Georgian law enforcement officers should cooperate in the future.
“Together with Ukraine and Armenia, we took part in an unprecedented and large-scale special operation. There will be many more removals in the future,” he said.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
