The initiative, dubbed Operation White Snow, was jointly organised by the Polish police’s Central Investigative Bureau (CBŚP) and Italy’s Central Directorate for Anti-Drugs Services, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
Law enforcement officials from Italy, Spain, Lithuania, Colombia, the Netherlands and Sweden collaborated in the project, alongside representatives from the European Union’s police agency Europol, the EU’s border protection agency Frontex, and the six-country Maritime Analysis and Operations Centre (Narcotics), according to Poland’s CBŚP.
Operation White Snow was designed to “implement international measures to combat drug crime, especially focusing on identifying new routes and methods for cocaine smuggling,” CBŚP said.
As part of the project, authorities arrested 83 high-ranking members of drug gangs, seized more than 1.2 tonnes of illegal drugs valued at around EUR 1.2 billion, and dismantled two laboratories involved in the production of synthetic drugs, the PAP news agency reported.
Investigators also confiscated 160 firearms, more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition and EUR 5.8 million in cash, according to officials.
Operation White Snow included meetings held in Madrid and Naples, as well as two training courses for police officers. The training courses covered topics such as the role of cryptocurrencies in the drug trade and the use of drones in police work.
The project concluded with a conference in Warsaw earlier this month, the PAP news agency reported.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, CBŚP