Six members of cocaine smuggling ring arrested

The National Drug Squad (NPC) has arrested six people and seized 440 grams of cocaine after an investigation that spanned two continents.

The arrests occurred April 14, according to NPC spokesman Michal Hammer. The smuggling ring, which detectives had been investigating since a pair of arrests last year, was using Czechs as couriers to bring high-quality cocaine from South America.

Dubbed "Operation Caracas," the investigation began after a Czech national was arrested at the Caracas airport in Venezuela carrying a kilogram of cocaine hidden in his carry-on luggage. A second courier was apprehended months later in London with 5 kilograms of the drug smuggled from Argentina.

This most recent wave of arrests, which include five men and one woman, took place in Prague; Vrané nad Vltavou, central Bohemia; and Jihlava, south Moravia. The alleged ringleader has already served prison time for distributing Pervitin, a locally made methamphetamine.

The group was selling the imported cocaine to "richer clients" at Prague and Jihlava clubs, according to Hammer. 

Whereas the average purity of cocaine seized in the Czech Republic is 15 percent to 35 percent, the 440 grams taken in a series of raids contained "55 percent of effective substance," Hammer said. Police also seized 40,000 Kč in cash.

The total 6.44 kilograms worth of cocaine - including the amounts in London and Caracas - seized during Operation Caracas, has a street value of around 12 million Kč, according to the NPC.

According to a 2009 government report, the most recent year in which drug-smuggling statistics are available, the most common cocaine smuggling route into the country is from South America to Western Europe (usually the Netherlands, the United Kingdom or Spain) and then overland by car or bus.

Though cocaine use is comparatively low in the Czech Republic - only 0.5 percent of adults used cocaine in 2009 - it has been increasing in recent years, said National Anti-Drug Policy Coordinator Jindřich Vobořil.

He said cocaine use "is still a proportionally small number compared with cannabis, heroin, and Pervitin, but it's growing percentage-wise." He added that cocaine-related arrests and criminal activity are also on the rise.

The government report says that in 2009 police confiscated 12.9 kilograms of cocaine in 26 total seizures nationwide. The report estimates that nearly 1 ton of cocaine was consumed in that same year.

In an unrelated case in December 2010, customs officers at Ruzyně Airport detained a Paraguayan man who was traveling from Sao Paulo with nearly 2 kilograms of cocaine hidden in his shoes and suitcase. Earlier this month, an Ostrava court sentenced two Albanians and one Italian to between four and nine years in prison for cocaine smuggling.

Four of the suspects in the current case face up to 18 years in prison, and the remaining two up to 10 years. The two couriers who were arrested in Venezuela and the United Kingdom last year are serving lengthy prison terms.

Gordon LaForge can be reached at
features@praguepost.com