More than a ton of cocaine worth 11 billion rubles was detained by customs and FSB officers at the Big Port of St. Petersburg

More than a ton of cocaine was detained by officers of the North-West Customs Directorate and the Russian Federal Security Service’s Directorate for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region on the territory of the Big Port of St. Petersburg. Its value on the black market exceeds 11 billion rubles

The drug was detected by customs officers during the control of a container arriving from Nicaragua. Smugglers hid 1,000 briquettes of compressed white powder in the upper part of the cargo module

Expertise confirmed it was the narcotic drug cocaine.

The North-West Operational Customs Office opened a criminal case under paragraph “b” of part 4 of article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (smuggling of drugs on a particularly large scale).

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

Public Relations Department of the NWTU