A joint task force of 200 Hungarian police and Counter Terrorism Centre (CTC) officers hit 20 locations simultaneously in one of the country’s largest ever drug operations Wednesday morning, taking into custody 17 people and seizing an unspecified amount of designer drugs, weapons, ammunition, vehicles and cash, Hungarian National Police said in a statement.
Fifty police vehicles were involved in the raid, and the equipment used included ground-penetrating radars, sniffer dogs, metal detectors, and portable spectrometers used to identify designer drugs.
The drug network was dealing in two designer drugs, nicknamed chalk and snowflake, both synthetic methamphetamines, also colloquially known as crystal meth.
The bust — preceded by months of regular and undercover detective work — was conducted in the country’s central Pest and Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok counties and was coordinated by the police department of the small central Hungarian town of Cegléd.
The police statement said that according to information uncovered so far, the three main suspects taken into custody (identified only by their first name and surname initial) made a combined profit of at least 315 million forints (€931,000) from the distribution of the drugs.
Out of the 17 persons taken into custody – including one woman – 14 have been charged with various crimes. None of them had jobs.
Title image: Counter Terrorism Centre officers take into custody the member of a drug ring at an undisclosed location in central Hungary (still capture from police.hu video)
