The operation saw investigators confiscate almost 2 tonnes of the drug with a street value of over PLN 2.2 billion (EUR 500 million, USD 570 million), public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency has reported.
Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference on Thursday that the bust—by officers from Poland's Central Bureau of Police Investigation (CBŚP), working together with investigators from the country’s customs and tax administration—marked one of the biggest crackdowns on drug smugglers in Poland in the last 30 years.
Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński said the operation by Polish law enforcement agencies saved countries across the European Union from being flooded with cocaine.
Poland’s police chief Jarosław Szymczyk told reporters that officers have detained seven suspected smugglers in the process.
“This organised international group comprised four Colombians, one Iranian national permanently living in Germany, and two Poles," Szymczyk said.
Poland's Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (second from right); Interior Minister Mariusz Kamiński (right); Piotr Walczak (left), head of the National Revenue Administration (KAS); and police chief Jarosław Szymczyk (second from left) attend a joint news conference.
(gs/pk)
Source: IAR
Click on the audio icon above to listen to a report by Radio Poland's Tomasz Ferenc.