The St. Petersburg City Court has delivered a verdict against a foreign citizen. The defendant was found guilty of smuggling, shipping, and attempting to sell narcotic substances as part of an organized group.
Investigators from the St. Petersburg Linear Department of the Russian Interior Ministry on water transport established that in 2015, the defendant and his accomplices organized the smuggling of cocaine from Ecuador to Russia. 98 kilograms of the prohibited substance were discovered in the seaport of St. Petersburg among boxes of bananas inside a cargo ship container.
After committing the crime, the suspect went into hiding and was placed on a wanted list in 2017. In January of last year, he was detained in the Republic of Peru and extradited to Russia. One of the other accomplices in the case was previously sentenced to 16 years in prison, while another participant remains wanted.
According to the court's decision, the defendant was sentenced to 16 years in a maximum-security penal colony. At present, the court verdict has not yet entered into legal force.
