MOSCOW, May 13. /ITAR-TASS/. Officers of the Russian drug watchdog have curbed the activity of a major criminal group in Crimea, which had been supplying drugs to the region for 10 years. The Federal Drug Control Service reported this on Tuesday.

“In the recent years, organized criminal groups became active in Crimea. Their activity is understood: Ukrainian law enforcement agencies were loyal to drug business. At present, Russian drug control agencies got into gear and are actively eliminating criminal structures involved in drug trafficking. The drug enforcers have already seized major consignments of drugs and eliminated stable distribution channels,” a Federal Drug Control Service representative said.

He added that May 5, officers of the Regional Directorate of the Federal Drug Control Service curbed the activity of an organized criminal group, which had been supplying drugs all over the peninsula for 10 years.

The raid was divided into several stages. It is noteworthy that the investigation into the activity of the group was carried out with no access to the data base of Ukraine’s Interior Ministry, the agency’s representative said.

“As a result, two organizers and 12 members of an international drug trafficking group have been detained. Five of them repeatedly came to the attention of the law enforcement agencies. The drug enforcers have seized over 1,800 doses of drugs packed for sale, as well as a big amount of precursors,” the Federal Drug Control Service reported.

The cars of the drug dealers were arrested; about 600,000 rubles ($17,189) and golden jewelry allegedly bought for money gained from drug dealing have been seized.

“The elimination of this criminal group caused wide response among the residents, given the fact that earlier, despite multiple claims about the obvious criminal activity of the drug dealers, no measures were taken,” the agency’s representative said.