He is currently being tried along with three other people – former police officer and employee of the late Jānis Skrabāns company Agri Vaivoda, Agra’s brother Daina Vaivoda and Andrejs Davidko – for smuggling, drug storage and money laundering.
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However, according to IR magazine, more and more people are suspected of involvement in the large-scale cocaine case, but they have not yet reached the bench.
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For example, in 2019, Andris Bolužs, the senior customs supervisor of the Riga airport customs control point, was temporarily detained. His name is also probably related to the case of the import of 3.3 tons of synthetic drug raw materials into Latvia, which also took place in 2019. Among the temporary detainees were at least 3 customs officers.
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The State Police explains to us that Latvia, due to its geographical location, is a point that drug carriers like. Europe’s external border with strongly developed logistics routes – rail, road, a large enough sea border. Cocaine is trafficked from South America to Europe. Synthetic substances – mostly from China.
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The police say that together with their Danish colleagues, they have discovered a well-planned crime involving Latvians. Everything is reminiscent of a movie script. The refrigerator ship flying the flag of the Bahamas, Duncan Island, had arrived in Sweden from Ecuador, where it continued its journey to Russia after a short delay on February 15, 2020. But a three-man motorboat arrived on one of the Danish islands – all Latvians. A specially packed bundle of 100 kilograms of cocaine was dropped on a boat in 2006. The men were detained when they returned ashore, and an accomplice was also caught in a search of several Latvian cities. and men born in 1971. They have already been convicted and are all serving 12 years in prison.
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The company BANALAT is one of the largest banana ripening and trading companies in Latvia. Bananas from their countries of origin travel in special containers with a constant +13 degrees. Bananas are green and unripe. Asleep, according to experts. When they reach BANALAT and other similar warehouses, they are treated with a special gas that begins the process of ripening the bananas. The capacity of this warehouse allows you to ripen up to 20,000 boxes of bananas a week.
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Just before Christmas, white powdered packaging was found in banana boxes in two Maxima chain stores. A total of 168 kilograms. The sachets were bright green to make them harder to see during transport between unripe green bananas. Representatives of Maxima stores refused any comments from us.
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According to BANLAT, they are cooperating with the police. But they do not want to say whether the cocaine was found in the boxes they delivered. Police say there are no detainees and the investigation is only at an early stage.
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When creating the story, we noticed that for more than a year now we have been living without a conceptual document called the “Plan for Restricting Drug Use and Spread”. It was last adopted by the government in the summer of 2019. And it was intended to monitor the area in 2019 and 2020. The document sets out the work to be done, the money earmarked for curbing the spread of drugs. As the Ministry of the Interior explained to us, the Ministry of Health has now taken over the preparation of the plan from it. There, in turn, says a special think tank has been set up to prepare a plan to improve access to drug services and prevention. And probably in the second half of the year it will travel to the government.
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