A 50-year-old Palestinian held over the ketamine found in Limassol told investigators he was to be paid 5,000 euros to store the drugs.
The admission was among new evidence put to a Limassol court during an application to extend the detention of the Palestinian and an Israeli couple, a 53-year-old man and his 51-year-old wife, by eight days. Investigators established that about 390 kilos of ketamine came into Cyprus in three shipments, on July 22, August 12 and September 9, 2026.
In written questioning on September 16, the 50-year-old first denied any involvement and offered various explanations. He then changed his account, saying he knew the buckets found at his home contained drugs, but not that they held ketamine. He said he took the buckets from a warehouse he pointed out to police and kept them until he was told where to take them. Asked about the second shipment, he said he knew nothing about it and declined to answer questions.
Investigators are focusing on the waybills for the shipments, which name a company and the 50-year-old, with his address, as buyer and recipient. According to police, he appears to have received the goods from the first two shipments, since the paperwork also carries his personal phone number.
For those two shipments, investigators also obtained CCTV footage, according to the evidence put to the court. It appears to show him driving to the warehouse with two vehicles on July 23 and August 24, 2026 to collect the goods.
Investigators also linked the 51-year-old Israeli woman to all three shipments. According to the Anti-Drugs Unit (YKAN), she contacted the offices of the freight company that handled the imports into Cyprus, gave her name and provided an email address and phone number. Investigators found that the name and number are hers. She exercised her right to silence when questioned in writing on September 20.
On her husband’s phone, investigators turned up photos of invoices for the first two shipments, of 126 and 263 kilos, along with numerous photos of drugs and scales. They also found an internet search for the warehouses of a company in a European country, where the goods from all three shipments were delivered before being sent to Cyprus. According to police, the invoices cover goods the 50-year-old is alleged to have collected. The 53-year-old exercised his right to silence when questioned in writing on September 17.
The 50-year-old’s wife denied any involvement when questioned, according to police. She reportedly said she was seeing the packages for the first time because her husband mostly uses the yard of their home where the ketamine was found, in buckets, and that she did not see who took them there. She was released.
The three suspects were arrested again after the new quantity was found, and investigators collected a large number of exhibits. Most have gone for forensic and other tests. An application for an order to access data stored on the suspects’ phones has been sent to the Law Office of the Republic for review and approval.
A letter has also been sent to German authorities via Interpol, in an effort to secure further evidence on how the ketamine was brought into the Republic and how the suspects and possible accomplices operated. The ketamine appears to have come from Germany.
