Europe’s New Drug Epicenter: Ukraine

The Netherlands was long considered the land of “coffee shops” and legally tolerated soft drugs. But while the Amsterdam police are now increasingly cracking down on online dealers of anabolic steroids, another country has become the center of the steroid trade: Ukraine.

Anabolic steroids are not only available there—they are systematically distributed, especially to soldiers. And the boom has consequences for all of Western Europe.

At the end of last year, the Ukrainian State Service for Drugs and Drug Control seized shipments of testosterone, trenbolone, and sustanon – and sent them directly to military units. The practice is reminiscent of World War II, when the Wehrmacht commonly used Pervitin to boost soldiers’ performance. Today, however, it’s no longer just about amphetamines, but a whole cocktail of performance-enhancing – and dangerous – substances.

The war has turned Ukraine into a hotspot for synthetic drugs. According to the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index, the country experienced the world’s largest increase in trafficking in such substances—a 4.50 percent increase between 2021 and 2023. Methamphetamine (“crystal meth”) is particularly popular among soldiers, but is increasingly being replaced by so-called “bath salts,” a cheap and highly dangerous designer drug.

“Bath salts” are mass-produced in Poland, which, after the Netherlands, has become a mecca for synthetic drugs. The drug, based on mephedrone formulas, causes severe physical and psychological damage—and is often adulterated with other substances to increase addiction.

Closely linked to the boom is the fate of Ukrainian refugees. With approximately 10 to 14 million Ukrainians having left the country in recent years as a result of the war or fleeing within Ukraine, criminal networks have an easy time forcing people into drug production or prostitution. In Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands, many Ukrainians end up in the illegal drug trade, and minors often become victims of human trafficking.

At the same time, Ukrainian cartels are seizing the opportunity and expanding rapidly into Western Europe. The Ukrainian drug mafia is now active throughout the Western world. One indication of this is the arrest of Ukrainian Steven Vladyslav Subkys in Mexico, who is alleged to be the head of an international drug network. Worse still, European police authorities are now asking whether the Ukrainian mafia only deals in drugs – or perhaps also in weapons. The black market is massive, as is the extent of corruption in Ukraine. A considerable portion of Western arms deliveries never reached the front lines.

This development could have disastrous consequences not only for the Netherlands. By providing billions in aid to Ukraine, the EU is also indirectly supporting a system in which soldiers are massively doped and in which the drug trade flourishes. The concern that thousands of addicted veterans could flock to the EU as “drug tourists” is not unfounded.

The Dutch police are already fighting drug traffickers on a daily basis – whether in the port of Rotterdam or in illegal Captagon laboratories producing stimulants for the Middle East. In 2023, the country transferred 3.7 billion euros to Ukraine and pledged a further 4.4 billion by 2026. The risk is significant that the money will benefit not only the war but also organized crime.

Sun Tzu once wrote that speed is “the essence of war.” Today, one could add: Drugs are, too. Amphetamines and steroids leave behind not only a devastated society—but also a drug market that has long since spiraled out of control.