Owing to the SSU joint investigation with French and Polish law enforces, the real prison terms were handed to the facilitators of an international channel for smuggling hard drugs.

The illegal formation happens to have been managed by three local residents of the Carpathian region. The malefactors trafficked wholesale consignments of foreign Subutex pills containing a particularly hazardous drug substance buprenorphine for sale in our country.

Under the guise of washing powder boxes, the malefactors were transferring the goods across the EU-Ukraine borders.

Yet in 2019, while attempting to import the smuggled goods in Ivano-Frankivsk, all three criminals were apprehended.

Thus, owing to the SSU joint joint actions with EU law enforces, it became possible to collect an undeniable evidence base regarding the mentioned malefactors.

As a result, the Ukrainian court sentenced one of them to 11 years of imprisonment, and two others to 10 years.

In particular, over this period, other members of the drug ring who were staying in the EU were detected and apprehended. Four of them - a Ukrainian and three North Africans - have also already been sentenced to prison terms in the EU.

In overall, the SSU has recorded the criminal group smuggling 35 thousand drug-containing pills to Ukraine for a total worth of over UAH 9 million.

Aimed at legalizing their income, the facilitators were buying up luxurious real estate and premium vehicles in the Carpathian region.

A Ukrainian court has convicted three organizers of a drug trafficking group under four articles of the CCU:

• Part 3 of Art. 305;
• Part 3 of Art. 307;
• Part 1 of Art. 309;
• Part 1 of Art. 263.

The investigation was jointly carried out by the SSU Office in Ivano-Frankivsk region and investigators from the National Police under the procedural supervision of the regional prosecutor's office in cooperation with Europol and Eurojust.