Up to UAH 12 million was earned from drug smuggling and sales every month: members of a family drug gang will be tried in Lviv Oblast
The group consisted of a husband and wife, their own brother and sister, as well as a friend of the husband. Some participants were responsible for the supply of goods from abroad, while others were responsible for manufacturing and selling them on the territory of Ukraine. It took a year for the law enforcement officers to identify all those involved, the channels of receipt and sale of drugs.
This was announced by the head of the Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police, Andrii Rubel.
According to Andrii Rubel: the whole family was involved in the “criminal business”. It was organized by a 29-year-old man from Lviv and involved his relatives – his brother, his wife, her sister and his acquaintance. They established a channel for the smuggling of powerful pills containing the precursor “pseudoephedrine”, as well as the operation of a drug laboratory. The monthly profit from the “business” could reach 12 million hryvnias.
The role of the courier in the group was played by the wife’s sister. While staying abroad for some time, she used buses to deliver packages of drug-containing pills. She carefully disguised them so that the search dogs could not detect the “goods”. After returning to Ukraine, the woman was directly involved in the delivery of suitcases. An acquaintance of the organizer was responsible for receiving them. He was passing these packages to his brother.
As the head of the Department of Strategic Investigations of the National Police said, in the drug laboratory, the brother of the leader of the group, using the appropriate technological process, isolated pure “pseudoephedrine” from the pills. Later, methamphetamine was made from this precursor. The laboratory was located in a non-residential building in one of the sleeping areas of Lviv.
The organizer and his wife packaged the goods in batches and sold them throughout Ukraine. The shipment of the “goods” was carried out by means of postal communication. When forming parcels, the accused used accounts with fictitious data about the senders.
In March 2023, law enforcement officers conducted a special operation in order to neutralize the activities of the drug gang and arrest its members. Operatives of the Strategic Investigations Department in Lviv Oblast, investigators and operatives of the SBU Oblast and the Lviv Oblast Prosecutor’s Office were involved in it. Then five people were detained, and narcotics and precursors worth almost 3 million hryvnias, cash in various currencies in the amount of one million hryvnias were seized.
The pre-trial investigation in the criminal proceedings has been completed. The indictment against the organizer and four members of the group has been sent to court. The actions of the accused, depending on their participation, are classified as:
– Part 3 of Art. 305 (Smuggling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their analogues or precursors or falsified medicinal products),
– part 1 and 3 of art. 307 (Illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, storage, transportation, forwarding or sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues),
– Part 3 of Art. 311 (Illegal production, manufacture, acquisition, storage, transportation or forwarding of precursors) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Members of an organized criminal group face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.