Produced up to 50 kilograms of methadone a month: a criminal organization of drug dealers will be tried in Kiev
In April last year, police detained participants of OZH who were engaged in the manufacture of methadone and psychotropic drugs and sold them in Ukraine and abroad. Currently, the indictment against 13 members of the group has been sent to court.
Employees of the Department for Combating Drug Crimes of the National Police, together with the investigators of the Kiev police under the procedural direction of the Kyiv City Prosecutor's Office, exposed the illegal activities of the defendants.
Police found that the organized crime group had established large-scale production and marketing of methadone and psychotropic substances. The group consisted of 26 people with clearly distributed roles: organizers, “chemists” who made drugs, packers, depositors, operators who accepted orders, accountants and people who cashed money from the sale of methadone.
The drugs involved were manufactured in three laboratories. The capacities of the equipped drug laboratories allowed the production of 30 to 50 kilograms of methadone per month. At the same time, one gram of methadone at “black market” prices is 1200 hryvnias, so their profits reached 36-60 million hryvnias per month.
The participants sold methadone in bulk through online stores, retail through mobile applications and through bookmarks. At the same time, sales through bookmarks were clearly organized throughout Kiev: operators and booksellers were fixed behind each district, who left the “goods” on the streets assigned to them. In addition, drugs were exported to countries near abroad.
The investigators of the Kyiv police have completed the pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings against 13 members of the organized crime group.
Violators are threatened with imprisonment for up to fifteen years with deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities for up to three years with the confiscation of property. Their actions are qualified by a number of articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine:
Part 3 of Article 307 — illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, storage, transportation, shipment or sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues; part 3 of Article 311 — illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, storage, transportation the importation or shipment of
precursors; Part 3 of Article 313 — abduction, appropriation, extortion of equipment intended for the manufacture of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues, or possession by means of
fraud or abuse of office and other illegal activities with such equipment; Part 2 of Article 306 — use of funds obtained from the illegal circulation of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues,
precursors, poisonous or potent substances or poisonous or potent drugs means; part 3 of article 321 — illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, transportation, shipment, storage for the purpose of marketing or marketing poisonous or potent substances or poisonous or potent drugs; part 1 of article 263 —
violation of the rules of operation of electronic computers (computers), automated systems, computer networks or telecommunication networks or the order or rules of protection of the information processed in them; Part 1 of Article 255 — creation of a criminal organization.
Police continue procedural measures to bring to justice other members of the organized crime group.
Department of Communications of the National Police of Ukraine
