Organized cocaine smuggling from Honduras worth UAH 8 million monthly: Ukrainian "drug lord" detained in Kyiv.
Kyiv • UNN
In Kyiv, a drug gang that smuggled cocaine worth UAH 8 million every month was neutralized. The organizer is a Kyiv resident who established a transcontinental drug trafficking route through postal parcels.
Law enforcement officers in Kyiv have liquidated a drug gang that imported cocaine worth UAH 8 million into Ukraine every month. The perpetrators organized a transcontinental traffic, the final link of which was postal parcels, UNN reports with reference to the National Police.
Details
As the investigation established, the logistical route of drugs ran through three continents. Cocaine was transported from North American Honduras to Panama in South America. From there, the "goods" were sent to Ukraine.
The smuggling of cocaine from Central American countries was organized by a 44-year-old Kyiv resident who had lived in the United States for a long time. There, he repeatedly came to the attention of American law enforcement officers, was imprisoned for financial fraud, and was later deported.
In 2018, law enforcement officers twice detained the suspect during drug smuggling - both cases are currently in court. Despite this, the man continued his criminal activity.
Overseas senders packed cocaine in vacuum packs, which were sewn into the walls of cardboard boxes. To conceal his criminal activity, the smuggler opened an international delivery post office as a partner and received parcels with forged documents.
The Honduran dealers filled the boxes ready for shipment with clothes, household items or office equipment and sent them through Panama to the Ukrainian capital.
In Kyiv, the leader of the drug group personally received shipments with forged documents with fictitious personal data at the international delivery post office.
Every month, the businessman, together with other members of the criminal group, received up to 30 drug-containing parcels, each containing approximately 100 grams of cocaine. The perpetrator spent about 30,000 dollars on such a purchase, and received 100,000 dollars from the sale.
The Ukrainian "drug lord" created a website. Through it, "clients" ordered cocaine, received data for calculation and agreed on the method of delivery. The man received the "goods" from his foreign partners. Communication between the supplier of the narcotic drug and his Ukrainian "colleague" was conducted in English and Spanish.
To organize the mass sale of drugs in Ukraine, the man involved accomplices, distributing roles between them according to the scheme: from administering the Telegram channel where "clients" placed orders to transferring the "goods" to customers.
A separate type of service was home delivery directly to the buyer's place of residence. Such "kindness" cost 30 dollars. The dealers also sold cocaine by mail, and dealers - already in retail by hand.
All payments were made exclusively in non-cash form on crypto wallets. The funds were transferred through so-called "drops" (transit cards for transferring funds) to the accounts of affiliated persons who provided their data for a fee to create electronic wallets.
The organizer of the contraband channel was detained by DSR operatives and National Police investigators while receiving a postal item, where 3 transparent vacuum packs with 200 grams of cocaine were found in the cardboard walls of the parcel. Forged documents were also seized from him.
During almost two dozen authorized searches in Kyiv, Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions, as well as in Lviv, police seized cardboard boxes with compressed powder substance in 7 mm thick polyethylene bags, mobile phones, postal invoices, money and "draft" records.
The leader of the drug group and his accomplices have been notified of suspicion.
Let us remind you
In March of this year, in the Lviv region a criminal group that imported cocaine from Poland was exposed. They managed to import more than a kilogram of drugs for 65 thousand dollars and were preparing a new batch for 260 thousand dollars.