According to Serbian Economist, Hungarian law enforcement agencies seized a record 522 kg of cocaine, the Hungarian police reported following a press conference.
According to police, the shipment was discovered at the Csepel port in Budapest among a cargo of bananas. Investigators inspected approximately 7,000 boxes and found 438 blocks of cocaine weighing a total of 522 kg. The estimated black market value of the shipment is approximately 43 million euros. Hungarian authorities called this the largest cocaine seizure in the country’s history.
The operation involved the Hungarian National Bureau of Investigation, the Hungarian Tax and Customs Administration, German law enforcement agencies, as well as partners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Police also reported the arrest of several suspects. Hungarian law enforcement officials believe the country is becoming one of the logistics hubs through which large shipments of drugs from South America are distributed further across the region.
International container shipments of cocaine have surged in recent years. While major flows previously passed through major ports in the Netherlands and Spain, shipments are now increasingly being routed to Southern and Central Europe as well, including ports in Montenegro. From there, shipments can be redirected to other countries in the region.
Hungary has no seaports, but it is actively used as a transit country thanks to its rail and road connections with Germany, Romania, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and the Balkans. Montenegro, which has access to the Adriatic Sea, is also regularly cited in European investigations as one of the most frequent transit points for illicit shipments into the region.
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Law enforcement officers in Transcarpathia uncovered a cocaine distribution scheme, in which the criminals disguised the drugs as washing powder and sent them to “customers” by mail, according to the Office of the Prosecutor General.
“According to the investigation, a 27-year-old resident of Zakarpattia organized a channel for supplying drugs to Ukraine and recruited accomplices to help him,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement on its Telegram channel on Thursday.
The agency notes that the accomplices helped store the goods in a warehouse, pack them into bags, and prepare them for sale.
“Cocaine disguised as washing powder was sent to their ‘customers’ by mail to various regions of Ukraine, in particular to Kyiv,” the prosecutor’s office said.
According to the Office of the Prosecutor General, the sale of six pressed briquettes of cocaine, weighing about 1 kg each, has been documented. The approximate value of this on the “black market” reaches hundreds of thousands of US dollars.
“During an attempt to sell another batch of narcotics, law enforcement officers exposed one of the members of the criminal group, and another in his own home in Uzhgorod,” the agency said.
As a result of searches in the apartments, warehouses, and vehicles of the aforementioned individuals, narcotic and psychotropic substances were seized: cocaine, methamphetamine, mephedrone, as well as computer equipment, mobile phones, packaging materials, postal receipts, cash, and draft documentation.
Under the procedural guidance of the Transcarpathian Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in the field of defense of the Western region, they were notified of suspicion of illegal storage, shipment, and sale of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or their analogues on an especially large scale (Part 3 of Article 307 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).
Pre-trial investigation – USBU in Zakarpattia region based on materials from USBU in Zakarpattia region and USR in Zakarpattia region DSR NPU.
According to Serbian Economist, organized crime groups from the Western Balkans have ties in Venezuela and are involved in investigations related to cocaine smuggling, Radio Free Europe (RFE) reports.
According to RSE, networks from the Balkans are considered by international organizations, including Europol and Interpol, to be key players in the supply of cocaine from Latin America to Europe, with Venezuela seen as one of the links in this logistics chain.
Sasha Djordjevic, an expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), told RSE that Venezuela is important for cocaine flows as a “strategic outlet” to the Atlantic, although it is not the only and main point of support in the region for Balkan groups.
RSE notes that interest in Venezuela’s role in drug trafficking has intensified following the early January arrest of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, who has been charged in the US and pleaded not guilty in a New York court on January 5.
As one example, RSE cites the case of the detention of the Aressa off the coast of Aruba in February 2020, when, according to the publication, about five tons of cocaine were seized and 11 Montenegrin crew members were detained. In March 2021, an Aruban court sentenced them to prison terms ranging from nine to 15 years. In addition, according to RSE, Europol linked Serbian citizen Miroslav Starčević, who was detained in May 2023 along with other suspects, to this case, and the proceedings in Serbia are currently under judicial review, according to the publication.
RSE also notes that Europol reported no direct cooperation with Venezuela, so information about the possible involvement of Balkan groups is obtained indirectly – through the law enforcement agencies of the countries in the region, while the Interior Ministries of Serbia and Montenegro, according to RSE, did not respond to requests prior to the publication of the material.
The global cocaine market is experiencing a period of record supply, with prices falling and drug quality improving, according to an analysis by German magazine Der Spiegel, cited by European media outlets.
According to the European Drug Agency (EUDA), the average purity of street cocaine in Europe has risen to 80-96% in recent years, while retail prices have fallen. Frankfurt am Main is cited as an example, where, according to experts, a gram costs around €30-50, whereas a few years ago the price was around €100.
One of the key reasons cited is the situation in Colombia. Following the government’s peace agreement with the FARC rebel group in 2016, the area of coca plantations in the country increased by about 73% and is now comparable to the territory of two Berlins, according to Der Spiegel.
Increased competition between cartels and “logistics optimization” have led to larger volumes of purer product entering Europe, shifting the balance between supply and demand. Experts interviewed by Der Spiegel describe this as a “white tsunami,” pointing to the growth in the number of consumers in Europe and the Americas, which is also reported by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
International organizations emphasize that the expansion of the cocaine market is accompanied by an increase in related risks, from organized crime to serious health consequences, and call on governments to strengthen prevention and addiction treatment programs.
According to estimates by narcologists, long-term cocaine use leads to severe addiction, increased anxiety, depression, and psychosis, raises blood pressure, and sharply increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. It causes chronic damage to the nasal septum and lungs (when snorted or smoked), reduces libido, and often leads to social consequences such as job loss, debt, and family conflicts, as well as an increased risk of HIV and hepatitis when injected.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in 2023, at least 25 million people worldwide used cocaine, up from 17 million a decade ago, and the retail turnover of the global cocaine market, according to a study by Global Financial Integrity, was estimated at between $100 billion and $143 billion per year in 2017 and, according to experts, could have doubled since then.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior of Serbia Ivica Dačić said that the Criminal Police Department, together with the Belgrade Police Department, conducted one of the largest cocaine seizures in recent times, Euronews reports.
“Today in Surčin, during the detention of two people, nine kilograms of cocaine were seized. The detainees were taken into custody for 48 hours, after which they will be transferred to the prosecutor’s office for further consideration,” Dacic said in a statement from the Interior Ministry.
According to Interior Ministry video footage, the bags of cocaine were hidden under the car’s gear lever.
The cost of cocaine on the black market in Europe varies depending on the country and specific conditions. According to local police, in Latvia, the wholesale price for a kilogram of cocaine is about 30,000 euros, and the retail price is 120 euros per gram.
In the Czech Republic, the retail price of cocaine is approximately 136 US dollars per gram.
In Austria, a 137 kg shipment of cocaine was valued at 14 million euros, which corresponds to approximately 102,200 euros per kilogram.
It should be noted that these figures can vary significantly depending on the country, region and current market situation.
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