Ukrainian and Bulgarian law enforcement agencies have dismantled an international drug trafficking network during a joint cross-border operation that resulted in the arrest of eight suspects, according to Ukraine's National Police. The operation involved officers from the Anti-Drug Trafficking Department of the Chernivtsi Regional Police, the National Police of Ukraine, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), investigators from the Kyiv Regional Police, and Bulgarian authorities.
"As a result of a large-scale specialized operation... a transnational drug trafficking network was dismantled," the Ukrainian National Police said in a statement.
The first phase of the operation took place in Bulgaria, where authorities uncovered and shut down an illegal laboratory producing psychotropic substances intended for distribution across Europe. During raids in Burgas, police arrested the alleged leader of the criminal group, a 39-year-old Ukrainian from the Chernivtsi region, along with a 31-year-old chemist from the Ivano-Frankivsk region who was responsible for manufacturing the drugs.
According to investigators, the group had established a fully illegal supply chain for psychotropic substances and chemical precursors. "The suspects created a completely illegal supply chain for psychotropic substances and precursors - they produced them in a secret laboratory, sold them and smuggled them to accomplices in Chernivtsi," the National Police said.
