Employees of the State Border Guard Service detected almost 379 kg of drugs, 17 kg of psychotropic substances and more than 6.8 tons of precursors for 9 months of 2020.

Employees of the State Border Guard Service detected almost 379 kg of drugs, 17 kg of psychotropic substances and more than 6.8 tons of precursors for 9 months of 2020.

Nearly 379 kg of drugs were revealed, and 310 kg were detained during the attempt to move to Ukraine.

The main part of the smuggling was a heavy drug - cocaine.

It’s necessary to highlight that this year, in comparison with last year, volumes of the revealed narcotic medicines increased.

The largest volumes of drugs - 259 kg - were found on sea channels, 47 kg - on the border with Russia, 43 kg - on the border with Poland and 12 kg - on the border with Romania.

If we divide the drugs detected this year by type, the undisputed "superiority" of 264 kg is taken cocaine, marijuana and cannabis were found at the amount of 85 kg, drugs were found at the amount of 25 kg. Besides, heroin, opium, hashish and poppy straws were also found in smaller amounts.

Among the most high-profile arrests were large consignments of cocaine smuggled from Chile and Ecuador by sea. The total price of this drug on the black market could be estimated at one billion hryvnias.

For example, a record consignment of cocaine was found in the Pivdennyi Sea Port thanks to information obtained by operatives of the State Border Guard Service. The drugs were transported in a container with a cargo of bananas, which arrived on a ship from the Republic of Ecuador. The container contained 100 packaged briquettes with 112 kg of cocaine.

In August, also at the Pivdennyi Sea Port, law enforcement officers detected 47 briquettes of cocaine, weighing a total of 56.4 kg in a container among a consignment of bananas that arrived from Ecuador. Each briquette had its own brand marking in the form of letters and numbers indicating its affiliation to a particular drug syndicate.

In February, in a container, which also arrived at the “Pivdennyi Sea Port” from the Republic of Chile with a cargo of cars, law enforcement officers revealed 31 briquettes of cocaine, weighing more than 30 kg. Each of the packages was marked with images of a character from the famous game “Monopoly”.

Another consignment of drugs from Ecuador, detected in the “Pivdennyi”, the criminals placed in hiding places, using the technical voids of a container with bananas. Cocaine was packaged in 45 briquettes. This time, to reduce the likelihood of detecting drugs with scanners and service dogs, clever drug dealers wrapped each briquette with the image of a minion in a lead package. The gross weight of the detected drug was 53.4 kg.

It’s necessary to remember that in May this year, after detaining a smuggler with 15 kg of pills, law enforcement officers stopped the activities of a criminal group that illegally moved Diphenhydramine across the Transnistrian segment of the border with Moldova and sold the drug in Ukraine.

It is worth mentioning the case when the operative and search units of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine stopped the illegal activity of a criminal group, which established the production and large-scale sale of amphetamine throughout Ukraine and abroad. In July, during searches in Kyiv and Kyiv Oblast, more than 3 tons of precursors, amphetamines and firearms were seized.

This revelation was preceded by the arrest of criminals who organized the manufacture and mailing of amphetamines around the world, namely to the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Poland, Great Britain, Greece etc. At that time 2 drug laboratories were liquidated and 36 international mailings with drugs were intercepted, 1.5 kg of amphetamine, 0.6 kg of marijuana and 62 kg of precursors were seized.

In addition, attempts were made to move drugs by air. Thus, a consignment of drugs worth over a million hryvnias was found at the Odessa airport. A Bulgarian citizen hid 650 g of cocaine, 16.5 g of amphetamine and marijuana in his belongings.

Smart criminals, crossing the border, hid drugs in fuel tanks, in food packages, and some even deliberately took a dog with them on a trip to distract service dogs on the border.

Many cases of detection of herbal drugs have been recorded, in particular, in Odesa, Donetsk, Sumy and Kyiv regions. “Dealers” hid illegal cannabis plantations in hard-to-reach and remote areas, cultivated drug-intensive plants among flooded areas of the coast, among reeds, on islands, and even grew in the exclusion zone. Border guards also detected an underground farm where “elite” varieties of marijuana were grown - an equipped greenhouse with irrigation, lighting and heating systems, in which a drug-intensive plant grew under optimal conditions using the hydroponics method (on nutrient solutions without soil).