Drug trafficking network in Bistrița-Năsăud dismantled: tea infused with psychoactive substances
Five suspects were detained after police discovered 42 small packets of tea sprayed with drugs. The criminal group used a new method to evade the law.
Tea infused with narcotics: five members of a criminal group from Bistrița-Năsăud detained
Romanian Police have dismantled a drug trafficking network in Bistrița-Năsăud county whose members impregnated tea leaves with psychoactive substances, according to mai.gov.ro. Five persons have been detained by prosecutors and presented to court with preventive measures.
During searches, police officers found 42 packets of tea contaminated with narcotics. The leader of the criminal group had devised his own recipe by which medicinal plants were sprayed with drugs, in an attempt to circumvent checks by the authorities.
Bogdan Ghebaur, spokesperson for the General Inspectorate of the Romanian Police (IGPR), explained the mechanism in a video appearance made right in the institution's laboratory: "We are talking about a criminal group from Bistrița-Năsăud, where the group leader devised a recipe through which he tried to do exactly that, to evade the law. He impregnated tea leaves with various psychoactive substances."
Ghebaur emphasised that new methods of concealment do not prevent the identification of prohibited substances: regardless of the form they take — mushrooms, cannabis plants or chemically treated teas — all seized materials go to the IGPR laboratory for analysis. If the analysis confirms the presence of psychoactive substances, the persons involved are prosecuted.
The case illustrates a trend noted by authorities: traffickers adopt increasingly creative methods to avoid detection. The drugs brought into the country by this criminal group were prepared according to their own formula, and their unconventional form sought to make legal classification more difficult.
Source: Google News RO — Crime (ro)