Prosecutors have sent a 23-year-old resident of Khotyn and his 20-year-old wife for trial in Bukovyna, accusing them of illegal trafficking in narcotics and psychotropic substances.[1] The Chernivtsi Regional Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment for illegal acquisition, storage, transportation and sale of narcotics and psychotropic substances, including in especially large amounts, under parts 2 and 3 of article 307 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.[2] National Police investigators said the husband is charged under parts 2 and 3 of article 307 and his wife under part 2.[3] If their guilt is proved, the couple faces up to 12 years in prison.[1]

Investigators say the couple accepted orders through a Telegram channel and sent banned substances to different regions of Ukraine.[1] They posted the substances using accounts opened in other people’s names, or left them in hiding places prepared in advance.[1] Police documented 25 parcels of Alpha-PVP sent to different regions of Ukraine.[3] The couple also sold drugs in Bukovyna by placing hiding places and sending customers the coordinates and photographs of those spots.[3]

During a search at the home of the accused, officers found and seized PVP, amphetamine and cannabis.[1] The man also handed officers a postal item containing another batch of PVP.[1] In all, officers removed more than 9.5 kg of narcotic and psychoactive substances from illegal circulation, and experts said more than 7 kg of that mass was PVP.[1] Prosecutors said the black-market price of what was seized exceeds 5 million hryvnias.[2]

Chernivtsi police said they had detained a man, then described as a 22-year-old resident of Khotyn district, who had organised the buying and selling of banned substances through a Telegram channel.[4] That police notice said officers had detained a suspect in Chernivtsi Oblast who had set up a system for buying and selling banned substances.[4] The same notice said searches had found Alpha-PVP, amphetamine and cannabis with a combined weight of about 9.5 kg, valued at about 5.7 million hryvnias on the black market.[4] The November prosecutor’s statement dated that home search to June of the previous year.[2]