Tens of kilograms of cocaine and cannabis were transported from the USA to Vilnius – Respublika.lt

The Customs Criminal Service (MKT) on Thursday released the details of a complex pre-trial investigation into drug smuggling in large quantities from the United States.

Last May, MKT Narcotics Control Department officers recorded a sudden increase in shipments of narcotics from the United States. In previous years, the amount of postal shipments with drugs from this region was counted in units, and last year it already made up a larger part – 40 percent. of all shipments.

Then the MKT started an investigation, during which they exposed a network of quack smugglers. It was established that several groups of individuals, coordinating their actions, sent drugs in large quantities and distributed drugs mainly in Vilnius.

The investigation was complicated because the smugglers had kept any physical contact to a minimum. He communicated with the senders on the so-called dark internet, paid with cryptocurrency, and created special closed channels for distribution on the Telegram social network.

According to the officials, the shipments with drugs were picked up at postal machines. Drugs are distributed in Vilnius and its surroundings, in the most diverse places. For example, recorded attempts to deliver them to prisons.

Usually, the drugs were hidden somewhere, after which the buyers were given the coordinates of the hiding places. In order to make it easier for buyers to find fakes, these places were sometimes marked with spray paint by painting special conventional graffiti marks.

The drugs (mostly hemp, packed in 2-2.5 kilogram packs) were intended for the domestic black market of Lithuania, where this hemp is considered a better quality “product”: the price of 1 gram of ordinary “grass” on the street is about 10 euros, while the American ones are sold for 20 -30 euros per gram.

The officers managed to intercept 35 shipments with more than 34 kilograms of drugs – cannabis and cocaine. During the investigation, dozens of searches were conducted in Vilnius and Kaunas, various evidences were found, and eight suspected citizens of Vilnius were arrested. Four of them are currently under arrest, the rest were released after being given remand measures – a written promise not to leave, periodic registration at the police station.

The suspects are 18-20 years old, some of them may have committed the crimes as minors. As “Vakaro žinios” wrote, the officers claim to have encountered a new generation of criminals who treat their actions as business, but not as a very serious crime.

During the investigation, which is led by the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office, the value of the seized drugs on the black market is about 900 thousand. euros.

The officers of the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau and the State Border Guard Service assisted the customs forensic officers.

Last year, MKT officers detained a total of 569 kilograms of drugs in Lithuania and started 96 pre-trial investigations into drug smuggling.

The largest number of investigations (84) have been initiated regarding junk mail or couriers. Most drugs are sent to Lithuania from the Netherlands, Germany and the USA.

Last year, the biggest seizure of drug smuggling took place on October 20, when officers found 26 barrels with 482 kilograms of mephedrone in the premises of a company in Vilnius. It is a synthetic stimulant drug similar in its effects to cocaine, amphetamine or cathinone. The value of such a shipment of junk on the black market exceeds 70 million. euros.

For drug smuggling in large quantities, suspects face imprisonment from 10 to 18 years.