Czech Anti-Drug Centre (NPC) recently detained members of two alleged drug dealing gangs, a group suspected of selling pervitine (methamphetamine)

Police from the Czech Anti-Drug Centre (NPC) recently detained members of two alleged drug dealing gangs, a group suspected of selling pervitine (methamphetamine) to Britain and foreigners who police say trafficked in heroin, NPC spokesman Bretislav Brejcha told journalists. The pervitine lab that the first group operated has been one of the biggest that the police recently revealed. Brejcha said an airline employee helped transport the pervitine to Britain. Police will release more information on both cases, dealt with within operations codenamed Lotus and Captain, on Friday. In 2007, Czech police arrested 2031 individuals suspected of drug-related crimes, including 130 foreigners. Police registered an increased interest in cocaine in the Czech Republic of which 37.6 kg were seized last year, or eight times more than in 2006. They also seized some 20 kg of heroin and about 5 kg of pervitine.
The NPC has long criticised the fact that medicines containing pseudoephedrine from which pervitine can be produced are sold without a prescription in the country. In 2007, some four million packages of these medicines were sold. The Czech Pharmacists Chamber estimates that some 80 percent of the packages were used for pervitine production.