44 litres of liquid cocaine hidden in cartons of branded wine

44 litres of liquid cocaine with a black market value of approximately PLN 7.5 million hidden in cartons of branded wine were seized in the Lublin province by officers from the Maritime Division of the Border Guard in Gdańsk together with the Customs Service of the Czech Republic.

The drug shipment arrived from South America to a European port. The investigation into the case was initiated by the Pomeranian Branch of the Department of Organized Crime and Corruption of the National Prosecutor’s Office in Gdańsk, entrusting it to officers of the Operational and Investigative Department of the Border Guard’s Maritime Branch.

The dismantling of this smuggling route is the result of months of operational cooperation with services dealing with combating drug crime from the United States, the Czech Republic and Europol. The transport containing branded wine with hidden liquid cocaine was initially loaded onto a container ship in a Panamanian seaport. The cargo was to eventually reach Poland via a route running through one of the European seaports and the customs point in Ostrava (Czech Republic). Thanks to the coordinated action of Polish-Czech services, it was possible to stop the transport of cocaine in the Lublin province.

Investigative activities led to the arrest of two residents of the Lublin province (41 and 47 years old) and a 53-year-old resident of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian province. All were charged with participation in an organized criminal group and intra-Community smuggling of significant amounts of drugs, which may result in a prison sentence of 3 to 20 years. At the request of the prosecutor, the District Court of Gdańsk Południe applied a preventive measure in the form of temporary arrest to the detainees. The case is developing. Further arrests cannot be ruled out.