The FCS Russia press office reported that customs officers had shut down a “drug smuggling channel from Europe”. Staff of the Main Directorate for Combating Smuggling, the Far Eastern Operational Customs and Nakhodka Customs halted illegal shipments of narcotics in parcels from European countries.
A 27-year-old resident of Nakhodka ran the scheme: he ordered amphetamine, mephedrone, hashish and cocaine from abroad, used nominees to receive parcels and sold the substances online across Russia.
The organiser was detained and remanded in custody. A search of his flat yielded mephedrone, MDMA, hash oil, hashish, cocaine, a laptop, scales, grinders for mixing and zip bags for stashes.
When the next consignment was delivered, an accomplice was detained: for a fee he supplied passport data to the ringleader and accepted about 400 tablets of the tranquilliser alprazolam from Spain at his address.
A criminal case was opened under Article 229.1(3) of the Criminal Code (large-scale illegal movement of narcotics). The offence is punishable by ten to twenty years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to one million roubles.
