Police in Vienna on
Thursday, December 29th, arrested 50 people in connection with a Nigerian drug
ring which operated in the Austrian capital. Investigators said they had been
on the trail of the gang for the past three years, and that in that time it has
netted a profit of over €6 million. 21 kilos of illegal drugs, mainly cocaine
and heroin, were seized during the raids.
However, police told a
press conference on Friday that the gang would probably cut the drugs with
other substances to increase the amount that could be sold on the street to
around 100 kilos. The drugs were mainly sold in Vienna by Nigerian dealers.
Detective Georg Rabensteiner said that 100 kilos of drugs would
"cover" demand in Vienna for a few months.
Police first became
aware of the gang's existence at the end of 2012, when a Nigerian man was
caught smuggling €250,000 in cash hidden within cars which were brought from
Vienna to Nigeria. An investigation revealed that the money came from drug
trafficking. Gang members regularly sent over large amounts of drugs to Austria
via ten people who acted as drug mules.
The couriers would
swallow between one and one and a half kilograms of drugs, which were then sold
in Vienna. Police said that the cocaine and heroin which was seized was 80 percent
pure.
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