The FCS Russia press office reports in an official release. The headline reads: “Customs officers found 10 kg of hashish in the spare wheel of a car from Germany”.
At the Shumilkino checkpoint, Pskov customs officers identified a batch of hashish while scanning a passenger car with an inspection complex. Nearly ten kilograms of narcotics, which the service estimates could fetch up to 20 million roubles on the black market, were concealed in the spare wheel of a vehicle travelling from Berlin to Moscow.
Officers seized 108 foil-wrapped bricks. Examination confirmed the substance was hashish.
The driver, a Lithuanian national, said he had been asked to deliver the cargo to an unknown man. When the drugs were handed over near a Moscow hotel, customs detained a 50-year-old Russian who intended to move the hashish for payment and pass it to third parties.
A criminal case was opened under Article 229.1(4) of the Criminal Code (large-scale narcotics smuggling by an organised group), which carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. The suspects were remanded in custody; the inquiry continues.
