Drug lab in EU member state, dealers in Ukraine, passenger buses in between: Dual operation seizes $960,000 in drugs across 32 searches

Ukrainian and Bulgarian police have taken apart a drug operation that ran from a lab in Bulgaria to dealers in Ukraine. In a large-scale operation, officers dismantled a transnational drug scheme and detained eight people, Ukraine's National Police reported.

The ring ran a full production-to-sale pipeline across two countries. It manufactured psychotropic drugs in an underground lab in Bulgaria for sale in Europe, then smuggled them into Ukraine's Chernivtsi Oblast for distribution, and police seized psychotropic substances and precursors worth $960,000.

The lab was in Bulgaria

The first stage of the operation hit the production end. In the Bulgarian city of Burgas, police detained the scheme's organizer, a 39-year-old native of Chernivtsi, and a 31-year-old lab technician from Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast who directly produced the drugs.

The lab held a substantial stock. During searches, police seized 50 kilograms of psychotropic substances, alpha-PVP, mephedrone, and amphetamine, along with 150 liters of precursors, 200 liters of chemical compounds, and laboratory equipment.

The drugs moved by passenger bus

The smugglers used ordinary cross-border transport to move the product. They carried the psychotropics and precursors across the state border on international passenger buses, carefully hidden among personal belongings and luggage, with other members of the scheme receiving the goods in Chernivtsi Oblast.

The second stage targeted the Ukrainian end. Police exposed six more participants responsible for receiving, packaging, transporting, and selling the smuggled drugs across Ukraine, conducting 32 authorized searches with the support of special forces.

Eight face drug-trafficking charges

The Ukrainian arrests brought the total to eight. Police detained six drug dealers, four men and two women in Chernivtsi Oblast, and served them notices of suspicion for drug offenses under several articles of Ukraine's Criminal Code.

The searches turned up amphetamine, cannabis, packaging materials, cash in Ukrainian and foreign currency, bank cards, phones, and laptops, and police seized three of the suspects' cars worth nearly $43,000. The seized substances were sent for forensic analysis.