A shipment of cocaine worth 13 billion rubles was detained by customs and FSB officers at the Big Port of St. Petersburg

The smuggling of a large shipment of cocaine was stopped by officers of the North-West Customs Directorate and the Federal Security Service of Russia for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region on the territory of the Big Port of St. Petersburg. They seized over 1200 kilograms of the drug, the value of which on the black market exceeds 13 billion rubles

The contraband was detected, among other things, thanks to the use of technical means of customs control, in particular inspection and examination equipment. Customs officers scanned a container arriving from Antwerp, Belgium, and found rectangular briquettes of compacted white powder among the bags of coffee

Expertise confirmed it was the narcotic drug cocaine.

–On this fact of smuggling of narcotic drugs on a particularly large scale Baltic Customs initiated a criminal case under paragraph “b” of part 4 of article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – said Deputy Head of Baltic Customs Evgeny Alyoshkin.

Baltiyskiy Customs has initiated a criminal case under paragraph “b” of part 4 of article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

For reference: the illegal transfer across the state border of the Russian Federation (customs border of the EAEU) of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors (including in the form of medicines and biologically active supplements) can be qualified as a crime under Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (smuggling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors). This article provides for punishment up to life imprisonment with a fine of up to 1 million rubles or in the amount of the convicted person’s income for a period of up to 5 years.