Euroasian Jewish News

Israeli drug kingpin arrested in Ukraine

The chief of Israeli drug trafficking network has been detained during his trip to Ukraine. Joel Lion, the ambassador of Israel in Ukraine said this in his commentary for 112.ua news agency.

The law enforcers also took in a group of 42 individuals, involved in this criminal gang; all are suspected in organizing and funding the trafficking network, and the drug sale via drug dealers and other ways.

The operation involves two law enforcement agencies - the Israeli police and the Chief Department for Fighting Corruption of Ukraine's State Security Service (the SBU).

The Israeli embassy in Ukraine underlined that the said operation is a demonstration of high-level bilateral relations between the two countries.

96 Israeli citizens were banned from entering Ukraine since the beginning of the year. At the same time, about 500 Ukrainians were banned from entering Israel.

Earlier, the Israeli Embassy in Kyiv replied to the information request by the correspondent of 112.ua news agency. The authority has cleared its position on the recent incidents with entry refusals for Israeli citizens in Ukrainian airport, namely Boryspil international airport.

'We are concerned about the situation at the airport. According to the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority, while there has been an increase of Ukrainian tourists to Israel since the establishment of the visa-free regime, there has been no increase in the number of Ukrainian citizens refused to enter Israel in the past 3 years. We work together with the Ukrainian authorities in order to diffuse this crisis'.

Previously, we reported that the number of entry bans for Israeli citizens in Ukraine has grown up lately. Oleg Slobodyan, the assistant head of the State Border Guard of Ukraine said this in his commentary for 112.ua news agency.

'The reason, most often, is that some of them could not confirm the goal of their visit; some don't have the return tickets or don't know where they would live', he said.

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