VIDEO, PHOTOS: EUR 1.2 billion drug seizure in Budapest

Hungary’s National Investigation Bureau (NNI) has carried out a joint operation with tax and customs authority NAV that led to the seizure of some 480 billion forints (EUR 1.2bn) worth of drugs, the police.hu website said on Thursday.

Investigators seized 13 tonnes of MDMA precursor in Győr-Moson-Sopron County in April after being alerted by NAV, and another 19 tonnes of a similar substance from two warehouses in Budapest a few days later, the NNI said.

NAV alerted the police after its excise officers discovered suspicious substances within the contents of a container shipment in Sopron, in north-western Hungary, which was later confirmed to be MDMA precursor. An investigation into the drugs led police to two warehouses in Budapest’s 10th district where they found more boxes of drug precursor substances.

Police traced the source of the drugs to an international criminal organisation and are working to identify its members, the statement said. The NNI will continue working closely with NAV throughout the rest of the investigation, it added.

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