Police charge 26 people with drug trafficking

Police have charged a group of twenty-six people who were involved in drug trafficking, mainly heroin and methamphetamine, in the Ústí nad Labem Region and elsewhere, as told to journalists on Wednesday by investigators working undercover. The discovery of the group was brought about by the deaths of eleven people through drug overdoses. The group's leader managed to leave the country before the police intervention and is being prosecuted as a fugitive.

The case is related to the intervention that took place in Dubí in the Teplice area last October. At the time, detectives detained and later charged eighteen people. Another eight were charged in April this year. Seventeen of the twenty-six accused are in custody. Some are charged with the crime of illegal production and handling of narcotics, psychotropic substances and poisons, which led to the deaths of more than two people. If convicted, they face up to eighteen years in prison.