20 June 2025
(Photo: SBU)
A court in Odesa has sentenced members of the world-famous Ndrangheta criminal organization who were found guilty of drug smuggling and sale.
According to the press service of the National Police of Ukraine, this is a consignment of cocaine that was detained in August 2021 at the Pivdennyi port.
It was planned to be transported in transit through Ukraine abroad. A week later, law enforcement officers seized another batch of cocaine in the port. A total of 120 kilograms worth $20 million.
The drug trafficking activity was organized by an Albanian citizen with a wide range of connections among members of criminal groups and organizations abroad. He was the one who communicated with the drug suppliers. His accomplices, citizens of Romania and Ukraine, were to pick up the "goods" at the port for further sale.
On August9, 2021, three drug trafficking organizers were detained while trying to smuggle a batch of drugs out of the Pivdennyi port. Officers of the Strategic Investigations Department in Odesa region of the National Police, the regional SBU office, and the Border Guard Service seized more than 60 kg of cocaine. The drugs arrived in a container with bananas from the Republic of Ecuador. The criminals planned to smuggle the drug consignment to the European Union.
On August 15, law enforcement officers seized almost 60 kilograms of cocaine. The drugs were hidden in the cavities of the container. This was the second batch of drugs that the organizers of drug trafficking planned to receive.
The value of the seized drugs reached $20 million. Investigators notified all the detainees of suspicion, and the court took them into custody. At the end of 2021, the indictment was sent to court.
A year earlier, law enforcement officers found 100 briquettes of cocaine hidden among bananas. In total, it was 112 kilograms of cocaine, also from Ecuador.
Кирило Бойко