Eurojust helps stop international trafficking of heroin substitute

The Hague, 29 May 2019

Judicial and law enforcement authorities from France, Poland and Ukraine, working together in a joint investigation team (JIT), took action against an organised crime group involved in international trafficking of a heroin substitute. Eurojust actively supported the operation that led to 9 arrests and 20 house and car searches. More than 7 200 pills of a total value of $100 000 on the Ukrainian illegal market were seized, along with cars, cash, equipment, and other valuable evidence of the criminal activities. Europol assisted in the joint action day by deploying a mobile office in France.

Eurojust, the EU’s Judicial Cooperation Unit, facilitated the operation in real time by coordinating the exchange of information and helping solve judicial issues. The criminal proceedings against members of the OCG, involved in international trafficking of a heroin substitute, were initiated by an investigative judge of the Specialised Section for Public Health of the Court of Paris. Some members of the OCG were targeted by parallel investigations that were carried out by the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office of the Ivano-Frankivsk Region, with the assistance of the Security Service of Ukraine, as well as by the Silesian Division of the National Public Prosecutor’s Office of Poland.

More than 150 magistrates and law enforcement officers were deployed during the joint operation, including the French Gendarmerie Nationale, Office central de lutte contre les atteintes à l’environnement et à la santé publique (OCLAESP), and Section de recherche de la gendarmerie de Marseille, the Central Bureau of Investigation of Katowice Police Department and Special Surveillance Team in Poland, as well as the National Police, State Fiscal Service and State Border Guard Service of Ukraine.