What are "legal" drugs, who crushes the drug business and how do illegal substances get into Ukraine, says the main fighter against drug crime

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Advertisements for the sale of drugs today can be seen right on the street and even ordered to be delivered by courier. Fighting this is difficult, but possible, says Andriy Kikhtenko, head of the Drug Crime Prevention Department

Andriy Kikhtenko was appointed to the post of head of the Department for Combating Narcotic Crime in August 2016. In this position, he replaced the scandalous Ilya Kivu, who was fired in May. Prior to that, Kikhtenko worked as the head of the operative-agency department in the already disbanded Department for Combating Illegal Drug Trafficking (BNON), and in 2015 he became the first deputy of the Department - the head of the department. His father, army general Oleksandr Kikhtenko, was the head of the Donetsk State Administration in 2014-2015.

In an interview with NV, the main fighter against drug crime talks about new synthetic drugs, which have already become a real problem for Ukraine, explains the routes by which prohibited substances are delivered to the country, and ponders whether such a phenomenon as the "crushing" of the drug business remains in the Ministry of Internal Affairs .

- How has the drug market in Ukraine changed over the past couple of years?

- A few years ago, conventionally speaking, classic drugs were popular: cannabis (marijuana), heroin, cocaine, and opiates. Now there are new psychoactive substances - synthetic drugs known as salts, mixes, and spices. It

Previously, there was no need for a mechanism for rapid detection and inclusion of a substance in the prohibited list. When these drugs appeared on the world market, each country began to solve this problem at the national level. Because there is, for example, no common list of new psychoactive substances. Each state makes it independently. Initially, these were synthetic cannabinoids - smoking mixtures. Then synthetic cathinones, which have an effect similar to amphetamine, began to appear, then synthetic opioids, for example, derivatives of fentanyl.

But still the most common smoking mixtures. Last year, we arrested one organized group of drug criminals who were involved in the wholesale sale of such drugs, and seized more than 15 kg of new psychoactive substances, highly concentrated, from which they planned to make an even larger amount of drugs - smoking mixtures.

- Are there any geographical advantages? For example, in some cities they prefer new drugs, in others they still prefer the "classics".

- There is a difference if these are industrially developed regions or central ones, where capital is concentrated and there is money - there were always more consumers there. Different sections of the population use different drugs, depending on their financial capabilities. Young people prefer cannabis (marijuana), these new psychoactive substances, because they are easily available and inexpensive. Injectable drugs are mainly chosen by people over 30, as practice shows. By this time, they mostly smoke or sniff.

New psychoactive substances are synthetics. On average, one such new substance enters the market every week

In general, now the trend is polydrug addiction. Not only in Ukraine, but also in the world. If earlier it was shared that one injects opiates, the other sniffs cocaine, now people often use several types of drugs at once. They do it in different ways: simultaneously or alternately, systematically or sporadically.

- What are these drugs made of?

- New psychoactive substances are synthetics. On average, one such new substance enters the market every week. In fact, they are analogs of already existing drugs, but due to their chemical structure, they are not subject to state control. That is, de facto it is a narcotic or psychotropic substance, including a particularly dangerous one, and de jure it can be absolutely legal due to its new, chemical composition.

- And what to do with it?

- It is necessary to eliminate existing gaps in the current legislation. At the moment, there is no regulatory document that says how to act in this case, where to send requests, what, how to make this substance under control, in order to be able to prosecute those who sell these drugs. We, in turn, developed a draft of such a document, agreed with the Ministry of Health and other interested bodies, and there are reasons to believe that it will be adopted in the near future. Then we will get a more effective mechanism of combating new psychoactive substances. These drugs are very dangerous: they cause many overdoses, including those with a fatal outcome. The substance is more concentrated and much more dangerous in nature than the same opium or heroin.

- You talked about the need to amend the legislation to criminalize these synthetic drugs. But how to do it? Some substances will be banned, tomorrow they will come up with a combination of new ones, which will be formally allowed again.

- There are two components here. It is not enough to include a substance in the prohibited list. In order for the investigator to later be able to correctly classify the crime, it is necessary to understand what amounts are considered particularly large, large sizes, and this is the prerogative of the Ministry of Health. But, taking into account that almost all new psychoactive substances are analogs of drugs and psychotropics already known to us, we want to form these criteria according to the principle of analogy. That is, if we say that it is an analogue of marijuana, then we automatically equate it to the amount of marijuana.

Heroin enters Ukraine through the territory of the Russian Federation, through sea trade ports, it can go from Turkey, Georgia

As for the rapid appearance of new psychoactive substances, first of all, attention should be focused on establishing control over the most common and harmful substances that have been in demand for a long period of time. Because these drugs do not have the same geographical distribution and duration of "life". In some countries, some kind of new substance takes root, while in others it does not.

- How do you arrest the distributors of such drugs, if legally they are legal?

- Most consumers mistakenly believe that if substances are legal, they are safe. The main audience is young people, both for the use of classic marijuana and for the use of new psychoactive substances. It happens that we document the criminal activity of a serious group, seize substances, and they are de jure not under control, that is, a narcotic drug or a psychotropic substance. And this significantly complicates the process of collecting data necessary for prosecution. But usually serious groups distribute several types of drugs, including illegal ones, and this is grounds for their detention.

- And if people distribute only new, de jure legal drugs. You come, remove them, see that they are all formally legal. AND?..

- Everything is removed, but there will be no grounds to bring a person to criminal responsibility. There is no composition of the crime. But in practice, such cases are rare. If during the documentation of one episode of illegal activity, the necessary evidence is not obtained, for example, the seized substance is not controlled, operatives and investigators continue to work further.

- Inscriptions such as: "Soli" and a phone number or channel in Telegram can be found literally at every step - on poles and houses. On the Internet, you can find a lot of sites that offer online ordering and even delivery. Does it make your job easier?

- On the one hand, people's opportunities are expanding thanks to the development of innovative technologies, the Internet, and payment systems. Everyone has a smartphone, Internet access, and electronic money. The popularity of virtual currencies such as Bitcoin is growing rapidly. But this expands the opportunities not only of decent people, but also of drug criminals.

The Internet has blurred the boundaries. Roughly speaking, even yesterday, in order to buy the same cannabis (marijuana), you had to know from whom. Even at the level of young people, it was not possible to find them just like that, you had to have a certain environment of communication. Now the Internet has made the sales market unlimited. Not only in Ukraine, this is a global problem. Now it is enough to simply go online, monitor, pick up a resource that happens, pay by simply taking out a smartphone from your pocket, receive a message where this hidden drug is and go pick it up. There is no direct contact with criminals. The most you can be afraid of is running into fraudsters who will "give up" - take money and not give drugs in return.

Many people say that it is possible to work as a so-called pawnbroker - to leave drugs in certain places, from where they are later taken by the buyer, so why does the police not do this, is not introduced to criminal groups in this way? Believe me, everything is arranged much more complicated than it might seem at first glance to a layman.

The facts of crushing this and last year were not revealed. But there are two facts where the police broke the law

- How are these groups organized from the inside? Do they have a structure, a hierarchy?

- As a rule, all participants in the process do not know each other personally. Each level is like a puff pastry, they communicate via the Internet, they only see logins in messengers. Therefore, even when a detained person, for example, a pawnbroker, sincerely wants to cooperate with the investigation, unfortunately, as a rule, he does not have information that could help the investigation to progress.

Most often, this is done by interstate groups. One part of the group may be in one country, the other in another. That is, people who directly administer the Internet resource can be in Belarus, Russia, or any other country. They are in contact with online buyers from Ukraine, that is, they provide them with an assortment, but do not touch the drugs themselves. And another part of the group, for example, in Ukraine, which directly receives drugs, packages them into doses and hides them - makes so-called bookmarks, but at the same time does not contact the buyer. They simply send the administrators of Internet resources information about where and what drugs can be found. And those, in turn, after receiving money transfers from buyers from Ukraine, send them a message with the exact location of the ordered drug.

We also identify people who administer Internet resources, which are engaged in the sale of new drugs in the territories of other countries or regions. We come, and these are young people, practically schoolchildren, they are crystal clear. They don't have drugs or anything illegal. There is only a computer and narrow-profile tasks. Therefore, it is a complex process.

This illegal business is constantly developing. Every time we face a new problem - they are constantly looking for new sales methods. They sold it through the Internet, then leaflets appeared, which were brazenly scattered even near regional prosecutor's offices, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, schools, and universities. Now they use the automatic capabilities of messengers - the same Telegram or something else where you can, let's say, create a bot. And he will send automatic messages, promotional offers every day, or even several times a day, to encourage you to buy.

- Is it possible to somehow block these programs and sites?

- If the Internet resource is Ukrainian, there is a mechanism to block it by a court decision. But in practice, such an algorithm of actions is ineffective, because in Ukraine there is no single body authorized to block or limit access to illegal sites by court decision. And there are thousands of Internet providers working on the territory of Ukraine. That is, to block a certain resource, the investigative judge must prepare several thousand separate decisions for each provider.

As for "foreign" Internet resources, in order to block them, in addition to a court decision, a request for international legal assistance is also sent to the competent authorities of foreign countries. This procedure does not have a clear mechanism and takes a long period of time. It would be logical to block access to such resources for Ukrainian users. Although this will not solve the problem completely, because there are VPN connection applications, Tor browser and so on, which allow you to bypass blocking, but you can at least minimize the negative consequences. But, unfortunately, there is no such possibility at the moment.

There are many legislative gaps. But despite this, last year we prosecuted 26 criminal groups that sold such substances over the Internet. This includes high-profile arrests when they were sold wholesale across the country.

- What does the situation look like in Donbas? Is there any smuggling going through territories not controlled by Ukraine?

- In these territories, there are also criminal gangs that deal in drug sales. It is clear that they adapt to the market. However, at the moment we do not have verified information that, for example, the current situation in Donbas has provided some exclusive opportunities for these criminal groups.

For example, one of the main transit routes for the supply of heroin is the "northern" one, it goes from Asia to Europe through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Previously, trucks with hundreds of kilograms of heroin traveled along this route, including through the territory of the Donetsk region. Yes, now there are territories temporarily outside the control of Ukraine, and theoretically a situation could arise in which international criminal organizations would be forced to look for those who can ensure the safe passage of their illegal cargo through the territory where the armed conflict is ongoing. But we also have other border regions, Sumy, Kharkiv, which are now free from military conflict. In addition, this is, first of all, a business, and its participants study all the risks. And if it is an area with a conflict, there are a lot of unpredictable factors that can affect the conduct of business.

- What other routes are there besides this northern one?

- There are world centers for drug production. If it is heroin, then two-thirds of the world volume comes from Afghanistan. The main channel of illegal circulation of this drug remains the Balkan route, it is oriented towards Europe.

The illegal traffic of Afghan opiates along the mentioned "northern route" passing through Ukraine is intensifying. This is due to the favorable geographical position of our country and a fairly developed transport infrastructure - sea trade ports, road connections, etc.

Dogs are not trained for such substances

Heroin enters Ukraine through the territory of the Russian Federation, through sea trade ports, it can go from Turkey, Georgia - but these are particularly large shipments. If we are not talking about hundreds of kilograms, but about five to ten, then there are many import options, including by couriers. They can carry it in their luggage, in hiding places, disguised household items, in cars in specially equipped hiding places. Maybe in body cavities, the so-called "glottels". Cocaine comes from Latin America: members of criminal groups go there, most often to Brazil, Peru, and the Dominican Republic, and these arrivals take place by air. There are options for delivery from Europe through our western borders.

New psychoactive substances mainly reach us through mail from China. Both the complexity and the specifics are that they often leave without hiding from customs control: there is a parcel, 1 kg of powder. The customs officer does not have express tests that would determine this type of powder - it is new in composition.

- And the dogs?

- Dogs are not trained for such substances. They also have to learn from something, for this they need examples, which are not available. As a rule, dogs are effective, but it depends on many factors: how much of this cargo is there, what kind of packaging, whether the smell is gone, whether the dog is trained for certain substances. Therefore, when there is a large wave of not prohibited substances, but among them are prohibited, but not hidden, very often the customs officers do not have enough technical resources to detect them.

- How widespread is the suppression of drug crime by the law enforcement officers themselves?

- Over the past few years, the anti-narcotics units have undergone a serious renewal of personnel, of those who worked in the structures for 5-10 years, today about 10-20% remain in the force. Plus, in order to minimize risks, the leadership of the National Police decided that an experienced employee from the Department of Internal Security must be appointed to the position of one of the deputy heads of the regional administration.

The facts of crushing were not detected this year and last year. But there were two facts where the police violated the law - not from the part of crushing drug sales - last year. They were brought to criminal responsibility. It was one employee from the Zaporizhzhia region and two from Ivano-Frankivsk. This year, we also have one case of violation of the law by a police officer, which is not related to drug crime. There is a fact, but the court has yet to decide whether the person is guilty or not.

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