The National Police have dismantled the 'Khimprom' drug cartel, which included the U420 gang (VIDEO)
The National Police carried out two large-scale special operations as part of dozens of criminal investigations and uncovered the activities of the criminal group "Khimprom".
According to the Head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhovskyi, the group operated both within Ukraine and abroad and was linked to drug trafficking, violent crimes, the organisation of the U 420 scheme, and the operation of illegal call centres.
Law enforcement officers established that members of the group were involved in over 30 violent crimes. According to the investigation, the group was led by a Russian citizen known as ‘the Mexican’, who has been on an international wanted list since 2019 and is currently in Mexico.
The scheme’s participants received funds via front individual entrepreneurs, after which they transferred them to crypto wallets.
As part of the investigation into the activities of the U 420 project, law enforcement officers carried out 281 searches across Ukraine. The estimated value of the seized assets is over 75 million hryvnias.
On 17 April, another special operation took place, during which the group’s leader and other participants were served with notices of suspicion. The organisers face up to 12 years’ imprisonment.
Separately, law enforcement officers carried out investigative operations at the U420 chain of shops in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and other cities.
According to Andriy Nebitov, Deputy Head of the National Police, over 2,000 covert investigative operations were carried out, and around 40,000 hours of audio recordings were analysed. Thousands of searches were conducted, and dozens of requests were sent to foreign states. Over 15 volumes of operational information regarding the activities of call centres across the European Union were gathered. As part of the investigation into the cartel, 70 drug laboratories have been dismantled. A total of 250 people have been arrested. During the investigation, threats made by the leader of the ‘Khimprom’ group against the head of the anti-drug crime department were documented.
According to the National Police, the monitoring of the network’s activities began in December 2025. Investigative actions were carried out under the procedural supervision of the Office of the Prosecutor General as part of proceedings concerning the formation of a criminal organisation, the illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, and the laundering of proceeds of crime.
The investigation is establishing all the circumstances of the group’s activities and the circle of individuals involved.
It was previously reported that in 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine carried out a series of special operations against the Russian criminal organisation ‘Khimprom’, which is involved in the smuggling of drugs and psychotropic substances. Law enforcement officers detained 89 members of the group, 34 of whom are already in custody, including the organisers. According to the SBU, the syndicate has a clear hierarchy, and its leaders are in hiding in Mexico.
In August 2023, a “branch of Khimprom” was dismantled in the Kyiv and Sumy regions. Among those detained were two former employees of the National Police’s anti-drug crime unit, who had organised the operation of two drug laboratories for the distribution of psychotropic substances in Ukraine and EU countries. During the searches, 23 tonnes of precursors and almost 150 kg of finished substances were seized, and investigative operations were carried out at illegal call centres in Kyiv. Since the start of the full-scale war, the SBU has dismantled over 60 criminal groups, seizing drugs worth around 2 billion hryvnias.
