Slovakia’s special prosecutor’s office has charged two Slovenians with trading in Anhydride acetic acid that can be used in the production of heroine. If found guilty, the men could face 25 years in prison or a life sentence, the TASR newswire reported.
Sebastian M. and Alen Ž. reportedly belong to a group of 11 people who organised transit of 10,000 litres of the chemical worth €300,000 from Slovakia to Turkey. One of the men is also accused of possession of an illegal armament. Both of them are in custody at the moment.
Police President Tibor Gašpar said that 25 witnesses were interviewed in the case and that police searched six houses during the investigation, TASR wrote.
The investigation goes back to 2010 when a Czech truck driver was arrested in Turkey. An international police sting operation, supported by seven countries and aimed at arresting a gang of drug traffickers, went awry and the unsuspecting driver who carried the substance from Slovakia to Turkey ended up in jail.
Slovak police tracked the truck from Dunajská Streda to Istanbul, Turkey. The documentation said that the unsuspecting driver was carrying 15 tonnes of a disinfectant but in reality he was carrying the contraband chemical used in heroin production. The truck left Slovakia on December 10, 2010 and reached Turkey four days later and was supposed to reel in the suspected drug traffickers. However, the receiving company said that it had not ordered any chemicals and the police action fell flat.
The Turkish police arrested the driver even though they supposedly knew that the truck was part of a police action. The driver was then banned from entering Turkey for one year, preventing the driver from performing his job, as the company specialises in shipping items to Turkey, according to the Sme daily.
Slovakia said that it had not made any mistakes and followed the original plan and that the error was made by Turkish police. Nevertheless, the Slovak government compensated the Czech driver with €25,000, TASR wrote.
Source: TASR, Sme
Compiled by Radka Minarechová from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
