18 August 2025
(The detainees. PHOTO: SBU)
The Police and the Security Service of Ukraine conducted a special operation in Odesa, Kyiv, and Dnipro to detain suspects in the organization of round-the-clock cocaine trafficking in these cities.
According to the press service of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa Oblast, law enforcement officers estimated that drug traffickers could receive up to $500,000 in net profit per month, as the price per gram of cocaine delivered during curfew was $250, and $200 during the day.
According to law enforcement estimates, the dealers sold up to 2,000 doses of cocaine per month at night alone.
Currently, according to the SBU, as a result of the special operation, 10 members of a transnational criminal organization who sold wholesale cocaine in different regions of our country, as well as one of their accomplices, have been detained.
The organizers of the traffic periodically lie-detected their accomplices who were involved in the delivery of goods to customers. For this purpose, the organization, according to the SBU, employed a professional polygraph examiner.
According to the case, the defendants sold cocaine, which they smuggled through their foreign accomplices, and then the group leaders sold the imported drugs through their own network of drug couriers in Kyiv, Odesa and Dnipro regions.
To search for customers, the drug trafficking organizers created specialized Telegram channels in which they offered cocaine and anonymously agreed on its price and delivery address. For conspiratorial purposes, drug couriers also brought drugs to customers in rented cars, which were regularly changed and used fake license plates.
According to the SBU, the group was headed by local repeat offenders who had previously served sentences for serious crimes, including drug trafficking, and during 58 searches, the SBU seized drugs prepared for sale and unregistered weapons with ammunition. Also found were phones, computer equipment and draft records with evidence of drug trafficking.
If proven guilty, the detainees face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
Кирило Бойко