Penza, 12 May 2015. PenzaNews. The regional department of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service eradicated a crime syndicate that was smuggling synthetic drugs into the Penza region and distributed them using a system of hidden stashes.

“According to our intelligence, a special purpose group in Ukraine was recruiting the locals who were later sent to Russia for distributing drugs. To facilitate the process, the crime bosses split the arriving Ukrainians into several brigades for separate regions of Russia where they were instructed to keep doing their crimes. One of such brigades was dispatched to Penza,” Elena Samorukova, chief expert of information and public relations department of the regional branch of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service informed PenzaNews agency.

The drug dealers were staying in the Penza region in pre-rented flats, where they were sorting drug batches into smaller packages, she added.

“The Ukrainians were selling drugs using stashes which they refilled only at nighttime and with many measures of secrecy,” said the speaker.

The drug money were transferred to Ukrainian bank accounts, Elena Samorukova clarified.

“The Penza Drug Control officials were tailing the foreign syndicate for some time. They managed to get on the trail of one of the criminals in summer 2014, but could not hold him accountable for the crimes, as he died from taste-sampling his own goods. Moreover, we have established the drugs brought from abroad into the Penza region took several victims. Two people died in 2014 after ingesting the drugs distributed by the Ukrainian crime syndicate members. Several more were hospitalized with acute poisoning,” the Drug Control Service official added.

According to her, the law enforcement forces detained all members of the Ukrainian crime syndicate in the Penza region.

“The operatives seized over 1.5 kg of drug substances for a total cost of over 2 million rubles. All the accused are currently held in the pre-trial detention facility,” she concluded.