[Regnum] An interregional drug trafficking ring on an especially large scale has been disrupted in Astrakhan. This was reported to journalists by the FSB Directorate for the Astrakhan Region on May 18.
Law enforcement officers arrested two individuals involved in organizing a supply and distribution network for synthetic narcotics. They are a resident of Stavropol born in 2001 and a citizen of a Central Asian country born in 2000.
According to the agency, a Russian and a foreign citizen arrived in Astrakhan to organize drug trafficking. They stored the prohibited substances in a rented apartment in the city's Leninsky District. There, law enforcement officers discovered and seized over 500 grams of mephedrone.
The defendants were arrested in connection with a criminal case opened under the article on attempted illegal drug distribution by a group of individuals by prior conspiracy, on an especially large scale (Clause "g" of Part 5 of Article 228.1 of the Russian Criminal Code). The suspects confessed to the crime, and the investigation is ongoing.
Earlier, in Krasnogorsk, near Moscow, FSB officers stopped a shipment of 100 kg of hashish. Two previously convicted Kaliningrad natives were planning to deliver the drug to recipients, but were caught red-handed and detained while seizing the hashish from a stash hidden in a forest belt.
In the Zabaikalsky Krai, law enforcement officers shut down a clandestine drug lab run by a local resident. During the search, they discovered and seized synthetic drugs and over 700 liters of precursors, which could have been used to manufacture at least 10 kg of the banned substance.