What is Telegrass?
The Israel Police reported that a group of 42 people was arrested on March 12. They are suspected of managing Telegrass, a major Telegram-based marketplace used for selling cannabis, ecstasy, and cocaine. It was estimated that the marketplace had hundreds of thousands of buyers. Now Telegrass is offline. The news was reported by several Israeli mass media. On the internet, it was said that Telegrass made a revolution on the drugs market.
The arrest
Almost at the same time the Telegrass founder, Israeli citizen Amos Dov Silver, was on a visit in Kyiv. In an interview with Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth he stated “The police can`t do anything,” adding “they have no way of getting us.”
In a few days before the arrest, Amos Silver wrote that he purchased three different varieties of cannabis for 150 USD using Telegrass.
On March 11, Silver visited the Babi Yar memorial and on March 12 he was arrested by Ukrainian law enforcers. The Israeli Police stated earlier that members of the drug ring had been detained during a special operation in cooperation with law enforcement officials from the USA, Germany, and Ukraine.
Silver informs on his arrest in Kyiv:
The operation was carried out by officers of the Main Directorate on Fight against Corruption and Organized Crime of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). Its representatives call the operation “the blocking of activities of the biggest drug-trading internet network for the last 10 years”. According to the SBU data, the ring united more than 13,000 people, including smugglers, dealers, and administrators of social network groups. The law enforcers say that Silver arrived in Kyiv in order to “develop business ties with representatives of local crime rings”.
The website of the Prosecutor General`s Office of Ukraine informs that Silver is held in Kyiv pre-trial detention center until a decision on his extradition to Israel is made.
