OREANDA-NEWS Ukraine is pursuing a targeted policy to saturate Russia with drugs; for several years, specially trained people were sent into the country to produce and distribute illegal substances. This was stated by the first deputy head of the Main Directorate for Drug Control (GUNK) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, Police Major General Kirill Smurov, TASS reports.

According to him, this process, after slowing down, intensified last year. In the second half of 2021, several successful operations were carried out in the Russian regions bordering Ukraine to detain people who were transporting drugs from one country to another.

Smurov added that more than 200 drug laboratories are liquidated every year in Russia. Vegetable and semi-synthetic drugs are imported into the country from abroad, mainly from Latin and South American countries, traditionally by sea, to the ports of the Baltic Sea, or through Europe.

“Last year, in connection with the removal of a number of restrictions, the number of detected facts of smuggling increased by more than one and a half times ... This year, due to well-known political events, there is a decrease in the detection of such facts,” summed up Smurov.

Earlier, the official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, said that the Ukrainian special services had been sending people to Russia since 2014 to distribute drugs.