PRAGUE: An international anti-drug operation called Operation Marabu has resulted in the capture of a gang of people involved in international cocaine smuggling.
Persons arrested and indicted in the Czech Republic were allegedly smuggling high-quality cocaine from Brazil and Colombia for a group organized in Nigeria.
Three Czech nationals were arrested within the Czech Republic and five more people across Europe. In total police seized more than 3 kilograms of high-quality cocaine.
The gang was also recruiting couriers, mainly low socio-economic groups. One of the gang kingpins who recruited couriers in the CzechRepublic was among those detained in Prague.
In cooperation with other European police several perpetrators have been arrested, both direct organizers of the smuggling as well as couriers.
Additional charges and further arrests are expected, police spokeswoman Barbora Kudláčková said on the Czech Police website.
“The international operation code named Marabu was overseen by the international police organization Europol, based in The Hague. The main aim of the operation was to document drug crime by Nigerian-organized criminal groups in Europe and to detain couriers and people who deal with the importation of illegal drugs in individual EU countries. The crime detection was driven by police forces in Spain, Germany, Austria, Sweden, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal,” police president Tomáš Tuhý said.
Couriers smuggling cocaine from South America get very low pay while being exposed to the possibility of harsh conditions in prison, depending on where they are caught. They also face health risks, the police stated.
