The drugs could’ve fetched the criminals up to $72 million if sold on the streets, the FSB has said
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said that its operatives had captured a 673kg batch of Latin American cocaine, which was intended to be smuggled into the EU.
The wholesale price of the shipment on the Russian ‘black market’ stands at around 2.5 billion rubles ($2.7 million), the FSB said in a statement on Wednesday. The criminals could fetch up to $72 million if they sold the drugs in retail, it estimated.
“Another attempt by an international criminal group to use the territory of Russia for transit and distribution of drugs has been thwarted,” the statement read.
According to the FSB, two men from Russian “border regions” were arrested in Moscow while having a major shipment of cocaine on them. They had come to the capital to collect the drugs and deliver them to a spot from where they would’ve been smuggled into the EU.
The perpetrators used a rented car and fake IDs and driving licenses in an attempt to carry out their “multi-stage narco-action,” it said.
The video published by the FSB showed an SUV packed with bags and boxes filled with cocaine. Some even fell out on the asphalt as the operatives opened the vehicle’s back door.
The suspects claimed they had no idea what was in the packages. “We were offered a chance to make some money and move some boxes,” one of them said in the footage.
The FBS reminded the suspects that drug trafficking, especially on a large scale, is a serious crime in Russia, which may result in a prison term of up to 20 years or even a life sentence.
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In May, the agency reported the seizure of 492kgs of cocaine in Russia’s Smolensk Region, which borders Belarus. The drugs had been transported towards Poland in two trucks registered in Türkiye, it said.
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