Law enforcement officers liquidated the “U420” chain of stores, which sold "products with dangerous chemical compounds" under the guise of souvenirs (including souvenir cigarettes and drinks).
This was reported by the Prosecutor Generalʼs Office.
In March, Bihus.Info journalists conducted an investigation into the chain. The first physical stores of the chain appeared in Kyiv in the spring of 2025. Over the year, it grew to about 30 establishments in the capital and other large cities of Ukraine — Kharkiv, Lviv, Dnipro and Odesa. The majority of customers of such stores are young people, including teenagers.
U420 stores position themselves as “cafe shops for connoisseurs of quality products based on legalized cannabis”. Among other things, you can also buy “souvenir products” here — the so-called hash and joints.
The results of the laboratory analysis of the MIA center revealed that the composition of the U420 “souvenirs” contains a psychotropic substance, the circulation of which is prohibited by the Cabinet of Ministers’ resolution. This is a synthetic cannabinoid, classified as a type of spice. Due to artisanal production, the composition of each dose is unpredictable, which inevitably leads to critical poisoning or cardiac arrest.
However, the substance was included in the list of prohibited substances by the Cabinet of Ministers only on February 5, and the journalists bought the “souvenirs” a few days before that. This may mean that the content of the products is regularly changed, adapting to current prohibitions.
The Prosecutor Generalʼs Office claims that in order to cover up the activities and legalize the income, the organizers used more than 56 controlled companies that did not actually carry out real activities — the so-called drops. Law enforcement officers conducted more than 200 searches at the networkʼs premises and at the residences of those involved in the case.
Their actions are classified as creating, leading, and participating in a criminal organization, drug trafficking, and legalizing property obtained illegally. This is punishable by up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.
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