Members of the criminal organisation recently exposed by NABU and SAP as part of the “operation Carthage” had planned a physical retaliation against journalist Denys Bihus over his investigation into the U420 chain, which sold drugs disguised as souvenirs, as evidenced by intercepted conversations between members of the organisation, which were released by NABU and SAP on 4 November.

READ MORE

On 4 November, NABU and SAP announced they had exposed a crime group whose members had consistently shared their illegal profit with senior law enforcement officials in exchange for unhindered operation of scam call centres, drug trafficking, financial crimes, and crimes against people’s lives and health.

In one conversation, a man nicknamed “Mexican” discussed the possibility of attacking Denys Bihus, who was working on a news story about their activities.

“Let me f*** him up, because if this rat doesn’t film something about us today, he’ll do it in six months. But if we douse him with acid he’d be f***ing unpresentable. Let him go and make videos for his f***ing kids with his ugly [face]. Tell them to f*** him up, I’ll do it gladly, f***ing hell,” says “Mexican” on the recordings.

In the intercepted conversations, the suspects also discussed physical retaliation against blogger Ihor Lachen and the admins of the Telegram channel ProKyiv.

In April 2026, Bihus.Info journalist Svitlana Stetsenko, who faced online harassment following the release of her investigation “The Truth About U420 ‘Souvenirs’: Expertise Findings”, contacted the police over the dangerous psychotropic substances her investigation revealed, but did not report the harassment and verbal threats targeting her