Filenews 16 July 2022 - by Michalis Hadjivassilis
Indicative of the increase in seizures of large quantities of drugs in recent times, is the fact that in just two days the Customs Department of Larnaka airport with the YKAN, after coordinated operations, detected almost 27 kg of cannabis.
For the first case of 13.5 kg, three arrests were also made. For the second case, the Anti-Combat Service identified another 13.2 kg of cannabis, with investigators convinced that it is possible that these two cases were related and had the same recipients.
The deputy commander of YKAN Stelios Sergides has stated that criminal groups that deal with other types of crimes, import drugs into Cyprus. At the same time, he emphasizes that for 2022 there seems to be a steady increase in drug seizures.
Meanwhile, drug cases and the persons involved are also steadily increasing, except for the two years of the pandemic (2020-2021).
According to data, in 2018, YKAN had dealt with 1,168 cases involving 1,305 persons, in 2019 1,053 cases involving 1,180 people were examined, in 2020 853 cases were examined with 986 persons involved and in 2021 861 cases with 945 people involved were investigated.
Of the arrests of people involved in drug cases, the YKAN shows that it focuses more on the arrest of the big traders rather than people who are low in the hierarchy of the circuits. According to Mr. Sergidis, people who are high up in the trafficking pyramid and are involved in other criminal acts have been arrested. "We are not focusing on arresting a young man. But if a young man is arrested, he is treated completely differently than a trader," he said.
It is noted that in the event that a young man up to 24 years old is found for possession of a small amount of drugs and not for trafficking, then the YKAN activates a special protocol, on the basis of which it is proposed to the arrested person instead of being sent to court, to join a rehabilitation program. If the young man accepts it, then he will have to attend a certain number of sessions and then the Attorney General is informed who decides not to prosecute him.
