Drones were stolen and sold to the army as new: a scheme worth UAH 16 million was exposed

A former serviceman is suspected of organizing a scheme to steal drones from soldiers. Their markings were changed and they were resold to the military as new equipment. There are 16 suspects in the case, and the value of the stolen military property amounts to approximately UAH 16 million. Ukraine’s acting Prosecutor General Anton Kovalskyi reported this on social media on October 28, UNN writes.

Details

"They stole drones from the military, changed their markings, and then sold them back to the army as new. According to the investigation, this was how the scheme exposed by law enforcement operated. We have a large-scale result of joint efforts: 16 suspects, 25 identified episodes, and more than 600 seized drones," Kovalskyi wrote.

According to the acting Prosecutor General, "the scheme was organized by a former serviceman. He involved military personnel, civilian intermediaries, and commercial enterprises."

"They operated quite systematically. They looked for servicemen willing to hand over drones from military units for money. They even created a separate Telegram channel for this purpose. The equipment they obtained was taken to a workshop in Dnipropetrovsk region. There, factory serial numbers were removed, and markings and QR codes were changed. The same drones were then supplied to the military again through controlled enterprises, but this time as new ones," Kovalskyi said.

According to the acting Prosecutor General, in order to establish the scale of this scheme, law enforcement officers conducted more than 100 searches in nine regions and Kyiv.

"Of the more than 600 seized UAVs, over 200 have already been identified as property of military units. We are verifying the origin of the rest. The value of the stolen military property amounts to approximately UAH 16 million. During the searches, in addition to drones, officers seized UAH 13 million, USD 400,000, gold, silver, jewelry, and 15 vehicles," Kovalskyi said.

According to him, the court has currently ordered detention for all 16 suspects, with bail as an alternative.

"I want to say that these results are the product of extensive joint work by prosecutors, investigators from the State Bureau of Investigation, internal security units of the State Border Guard Service and the National Police, and military counterintelligence of the Security Service of Ukraine. Our task now is to establish the origin of all the seized equipment and the full circle of participants in the scheme—from those who ensured the theft of the drones to those who organized their resale to the military. We continue to work on this," Anton Kovalskyi added.

Background

Law enforcement officers exposed an interregional scheme to embezzle drones provided to the military as part of the state project "Army of Drones." A serviceman and his accomplices wrote off UAVs as lost and sold them online. The suspects used the proceeds to purchase real estate and cars.