“Easy money” and up to 25 years in prison: how the drug business is changing and who is recruited there

The career of a mortgager is short, unlike prison terms for such a “job”. And we have found the truth in those who are not so far away. To solve the problem of “personnel”, drug stores began to more actively “command” themselves workers from other countries.

Just last week, the operatives of the capital's Lenin police department detained cousins - foreigners. One found a "money" vacancy online. Promised a dollar salary. Interested, the 20-year-old contacted the handler. He explained that it is necessary to take drugs, pack them into small batches and lay them in caches. Then you need to photograph the places of bookmarks and transfer their coordinates.

For the involvement of his brother, the young man was promised plus 10% of his earnings. The guys were transferred money for tickets, for renting housing and were given an assignment upon arrival to buy electronic scales, zip-lock packages, tape. Soon the first tasks began. Right on the road to Soligorsk, where the brothers went to make the next bookmarks, they were detained by operatives.

Alexander Kushchenko. We are constantly analysing drug sites and we see many job offers for so-called infantry. These people are just consumables for shops, says Alexander Kushchenko, senior operative for especially important cases of the Department for Drug Control and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings of the Department of Internal Affairs of the Minsk City Executive Committee. - The fact is that it is now difficult to find mortgagers in Belarus: drug distribution is threatened with long terms. That's why drug stores attract foreigners.

According to the operative, visitors often do not know what punishment they face for drug trafficking in Belarus. They are told that the activity is not entirely legal, but they promise to ensure safety. In fact, many get into the field of view of the police after the first bookmark.

The worst thing that will happen to them is deportation. However, all are tried under the Belarusian legislation, the terms under which, recall, for the sale of psychotropics can reach up to 25 years in prison.

So sheepskin is not worth making. And as for the main motivation, none of the cladmens, whether a foreigner or a Belarusian, made a lot of money. Even an amount comparable to the average salary in the country is rarely possible to get - there are several reasons for this.

“Drug stores are not interested in paying them,” says Alexander Kushchenko. The promised salary is not given to them, and some of the money is left as collateral so that the person continues to work. He is fed promises, they say, package and spread a few more doses, after which you will get everything. He agrees because he wants to take what he has earned. In the end, we get this money and no one will give it to him. Over the past 15 years of Alexander Kushchenko’s work in drug control, this sphere has changed significantly. If word of mouth worked at zero and the dose came true from hand to hand, now bookmarks are being used, which are implemented through the darknet.

- The drugs themselves have changed. In those years, there were mainly heroin and methadone, as well as severe amphetamine psychotropics: amphetamine, methamphetamine, ecstasy. In Polotsk, where I started the service, they were mostly sold by non-locals. Since the city is close to the border, supply channels have often been identified. We worked a lot, especially at night. There was almost no weekend, recalls the law enforcement officer. — Now the vast majority of the substances seized by us are synthetic drugs: alpha-PVP, mephedrone, clephedrone. Most mortgagers are usually drug addicts. They go into this job to have access to the dose. Foreigners don't count, they do it for money.

- Drugs are expensive. Where can I get it without too much stress? Of course, at a drug store. The entire earnings of the courier often go to the next dose. Only the store remains the winner: it receives both the employee and the consumer in one person, says Alexander Kushchenko.

As a rule, such retail mortgagers do not move up the career ladder higher. They will never become wholesale distributors who have access to large quantities of goods, since the employer is not ready to trust them with large volumes of substances.

- I want to point out another problem here. Each body reacts differently to a particular drug and dosage. It happens that the mortgager cheats during packaging, and the missing weight makes up for something else. As a result, the composition and concentration of the psychoactive substance in doses can vary greatly. For example, a consumer thinks that he bought a dose of pure methadone, but in fact there is only part of this substance, the rest is impurities. It focuses on certain proportions, and next time from a new tab gets already pure methadone, which leads to an overdose. For the distribution of drugs in our country responsibility comes from 14 years. The police work a lot on this issue with teenagers. How many conversations are held in the walls of schools and colleges

There was a case when law enforcement found out that a 15-year-old guy could be involved in the sale, and tried to protect him. We arrived at the school, spoke in front of the room in which the teenager sat. Then we had a conversation with his dad. He promised to look after his son. But all in vain, after a couple of days, the boy was detained with mephedrone bookmarks. Court verdict: six years in prison.

But most often, according to police statistics, young people from 20 to 30 years old enter this sphere. The thirst for easy money overshadows the mind.

- During interrogations, they say the same thing: “I wanted to earn some extra money and stop doing this.” But those who really manage to stop on time, only a few, — said the interlocutor. At the same time, the legislation provides for the possibility of exemption from criminal liability. We are talking about a note to Article 328 of the Criminal Code of Belarus: to do this, you must voluntarily surrender drugs and actively contribute to the investigation. And there have been cases. Really, rarely.

However, some are not limited to the role of performers and try to organize their own drug business. So, in the Vitebsk region, the owner of the bath complex, together with his assistant worker, established the supply and sale of prohibited substances. One of the accomplices drove his wife’s car to Russia for goods, after which the men packed drugs together and equipped stashes in different regions of the country.

Another businessman, who has already lost his business, decided to open a drug store in Minsk. After his company went bankrupt, the man became addicted to psychotropic substances. However, he did not have time to launch his store.

BOOM DROPS

In 2014, which is considered the time of the drug boom in Belarus, 7.3 thousand criminal cases were registered in the field of drug control. For comparison: in 2025 - 3.7 thousand.

At the same time, the number of teenagers detained for drug trafficking decreased by six times. In 2014, there were 371, in the past - 57.

yankovich@sb.by