As a consequence of mass immigration from the "third world", Poland becomes an crucial point on the drugs map of Europe. The scale of the phenomenon shows that we are no longer dealing solely with the smuggling of finished substances through our territory, due to the fact that an expanding proportion of drugs is produced straight in Poland, in professional, illegal laboratories run by foreigners.
The drug business in Poland is increasing again. We have a increasing number of global organizations, including Ukrainians, Colombians, Russian-speaking people and Mexican-related groups. The scale of the problem is shown by CBS data. In 2025 officers secure Over 29 tons of drugs, or 7.3 tons more than a year earlier, while in 2023 it was about 14 tons. Even a fewer years earlier, the scale was incomparably smaller – between 2001 and 2017 the CBS averaged around 1.1 tonnes of drugs per year.
This is not just about marijuana or another substances associated with alleged light drugs. Among the protected substances are cocaine, heroin and immense amounts of synthetic drugs, and more than 20 tonnes of drugs seized in 2025 came from Polish illegal laboratories. The officers then liquidated 58 specified sites, and in the first half of 2026 the number of laboratories that had been liquidated had already exceeded 50.
Poland is so not only a transit country – it has besides become a large-scale drug production site. 1 of the most eloquent examples is the case of the methadone laboratory, which was late liquidated by the CBS. This was the first laboratory in Poland to produce crystalline methadone, and according to investigators' findings it was founded by “war refugees” from Ukraine.
The operation secured, among others, 195 kilograms of crystalline methadone, 153 kilograms of alpha-PVP and hundreds of litres of reaction mixtures, and both members of the group operating in Poland and persons associated with its Ukrainian facilities were detained. The production was not intended solely for the Polish market, but was besides intended for another European countries.
This shows that any modern drug groups operate across borders and usage respective countries at the same time as production, logistics and distribution facilities. An crucial part of their activities is the unregulated residence status, frequently presenting as a “war refugee”.
The second crucial signal is the fast increase in the number of Colombian citizens appearing in Polish criminal statistics. According to the Police office data, the number of suspected Colombian citizens was 127 in 2024, increased to 324 in 2025, and only in the first half of 2026 had already reached 239 people.
At the same time there was a immense increase in labour migration from Colombia. In 2022 about 4100 work permits were issued to citizens of this country, while in 2025 there were already over 37 1000 of them. In parallel, the Border defender revealed cases of illegal employment of Colombians, which shows that the state did not always effectively control the channels through which foreigners were entering the Polish labour market.
Such fast dynamics is adequate reason for the services to carefully analyse the mechanisms behind the expanding presence of citizens of this country. As we already know, the semi-legal employment agencies established by Ukrainians are mostly active in their collection.
By information The Polish services are observing the presence of more and more abroad criminal structures, including Ukrainian, Colombian, Russian-speaking and Mexican, any of which are to be linked to 1 of the largest cartels in North America.
This does not mean that all these organisations form 1 common “super-cartel”. It is much more likely to make an global criminal ecosystem in which independent groups can usage the same smuggling routes, laboratories, intermediaries, companies, people and financial channels.
If Poland is besides the place of mass production of synthetic drugs, the importance of global criminal groups is growing, and tens of thousands of fresh foreigners flow through the labour market, the state must control the full process much more effectively – from the issuance of a visa, through the employment agency's activities to the stay and employment of a peculiar person.
This is simply a rule that should apply in any well-functioning country: those who want to work legally and respect the law should be able to live a average life, while those associated with serious organised crime should be rapidly identified and eliminated from the system. The evidence numbers of drugs seized show that the problem has ceased to be marginal. Poland has become an attractive place for global criminal groups and their activities are increasingly crossing national borders.
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