Opium being tapped from poppies. (source: SITA)
POLICE seized the biggest amount of heroin in the history of Slovakia - almost 12 kilogrammes – on September 18 and 19 in the district of Poprad and Kežmarok. On Thursday, police detained four men near a shopping mall, who were found to have 1.7 kilograms of the drug. After consequent house and office searches, they found a further 10 kg of high quality heroin in a guest house in eastern Slovakia, the SITA newswire wrote.
“Out of this amount, 560,000 average ‘fixes’ could be made, worth Sk155 million (€5.15 million),” said Michal Kopčik, first vice-president of the Police Corps. He added that the heroin was 63.8 percent clean, amounting to 7.46 kilograms of pure heroin. Three of the men have already been detained, but one escaped and is still wanted by police. Police President Ján Packa declined to give more information, saying that early news reports had allowed the suspect more time to escape.
The men are accused of having trafficked drugs in the district of Poprad, together with two foreigners, since November 2007. Altogether, they received about 30 kilograms of the drug, which they stored in the guest house where it was found by police. The drug was exported to Poland, Switzerland, and Italy. According to Packa, it was also meant for the Slovak market. Packa refused to specify whether Baki Sadiki, a well-known Slovak-Albanian said to be connected to the drugs trade, was involved in the case. Sadiki owns a bar close to the guest house concerned.
