The trial has begun against a self-proclaimed psychic healer who stands accused of moonlighting as a cocaine pusher, the Interfax news agency reported Wednesday.
In August of last year, the would-be medicine woman attracted the attention of the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN).
She was detained on suspicion of combining her healing and divination services with drug sales.
"After she was taken into custody, she claimed that she was using [the drugs] to heal cancer patients," a representative of FSKN was cited as saying by Interfax.
The source added, "investigators found that she was selling drugs to addicts by leaving them in secret hiding places around the city."
A search of the woman's apartment turned up 100 grams of cocaine and methadone, as well as a large quantity of documents attesting to her purported psychic and healing credentials, the representative told Interfax.
The fortune telling healer reportedly made a name for herself when she was featured on Pust Govoryat ("Let Them Speak"), a popular Russian talk show known to embrace sensationalist subject matter.
The defendant was not identified by name in the report.
Under Russian criminal law, the manufacture, acquisition or sale of drugs can carry up to 10 years in jail for repeat offenders.
