Cocaine disguised as laundry detergent: in Zakarpattia, authorities shut down a drug supply channel

Police in Zakarpattia have shut down an international cocaine supply channel.

This was reported by the press service of the Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the Sphere of Defense of the Western Region, as well as by the National Police.

According to investigators, a 27-year-old resident of Zakarpattia organized a drug supply route within Ukraine and recruited accomplices to carry it out. They helped store the goods in a warehouse, package them into bags, and prepare them for sale. Cocaine disguised as laundry detergent was mailed to “clients” in various regions of Ukraine, including Kyiv.

Authorities documented the sale of six compressed bricks of cocaine weighing about 1 kg each, with an estimated “black market” value reaching hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars.

When an attempt was made to sell another batch of drugs, law enforcement exposed one member of the criminal group, and another at his home in Uzhhorod. Both were detained.

As a result of searches in the suspects’ apartments, storage facilities, and vehicles, officers seized narcotic and psychotropic substances—cocaine, methamphetamine, and mephedrone—as well as computer equipment, mobile phones, packaging materials, postal receipts, cash, and handwritten notes/records.

Under the procedural supervision of the Zakarpattia Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the Sphere of Defense of the Western Region, the suspects were formally notified of suspicion on charges of illegal storage, shipment, and sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or their analogues in especially large quantities (Part 3, Article 307 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

Prosecutors have filed motions with the court to place the detainees in pre-trial detention.