Vienna’s Street Crime Task Force, the Einsatzgruppe zur Bekämpfung der Straßenkriminalität (EGS), arrested three Serbian nationals in the Favoriten district on the afternoon of Friday, 18 September 2026, after identifying them as suspected drug dealers and seizing roughly 1.5 kilograms of heroin along with a smaller quantity of cocaine, the Vienna State Police Directorate (Landespolizeidirektion Wien) confirmed in an official statement issued the following day.
According to the police report, EGS officers carrying out a focused operation against drug crime in Vienna-Favoriten identified three men — aged 20, 33 and 38, all Serbian nationals — as suspected narcotics dealers during the Friday afternoon action. All three were arrested and taken into police custody.
The arrests led investigators to a suspected stash apartment in the 10th district, which officers subsequently searched. Combined with the material found in the course of the arrests, the operation yielded:
- Approximately 1.5 kilograms of heroin
- Approximately 40 grams of cocaine
- €7,000 in cash, in denominations the police described as typical of street-level drug sales
In addition to the three men accused of dealing, police identified and cited two suspected buyers who had allegedly purchased drugs from the group: a 43-year-old Croatian national and a 48-year-old Austrian national. Both were released on summons rather than taken into custody, and face separate proceedings under Austria’s Narcotics Act (Suchtmittelgesetz).
All three primary suspects were charged under the Suchtmittelgesetz and remained in police custody as the investigation continued. The Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office was reviewing the case to determine whether to seek formal pre-trial detention. As with all suspects under Austrian law, the men are presumed innocent until convicted by a court.
The Vienna State Police Directorate’s statement did not describe a wider criminal organisation behind the three men, and it remains unclear from the official account whether the case is linked to a larger trafficking network operating in Vienna or elsewhere in Austria. The seizure nonetheless represents a significant quantity of heroin for a single operation, a drug that appears less frequently than cocaine, cannabis or synthetic stimulants in the run of street-level busts reported by Viennese police over the same period.
The Favoriten seizure came just three days after EGS officers in Vienna’s 2nd district seized approximately 18 kilograms of marijuana, cocaine and crystal methamphetamine and arrested two further suspects on 16 September 2026 — underscoring the intensity of anti-narcotics operations carried out by the unit across the Austrian capital during the second half of September 2026. Both operations were led by the same specialised task force and both resulted in suspects being charged under the same narcotics legislation, though police have given no indication that the two cases are connected.
Favoriten, Vienna’s most populous district, has repeatedly featured in EGS street-level drug enforcement actions in 2026, reflecting its position as one of several inner-city districts where open dealing is a recurring focus for the unit. The Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office has not yet announced a trial date for the three men arrested on 18 September, and the investigation into the source of the seized heroin and cocaine, as well as the ownership of the searched apartment, was ongoing at the time of the police statement.
Under the Suchtmittelgesetz, trafficking offences involving heroin in the quantities recovered in Favoriten typically fall under the “large quantity” threshold that triggers aggravated sentencing provisions, with potential prison terms running from one to ten years depending on the specific charges ultimately brought by prosecutors.
