Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said Tuesday that it seized more than 1.8 metric tons of cocaine bound for the European Union, with an estimated street value of 6 billion rubles ($74.5 million).
The law enforcement agency said it intercepted the first shipment of 1.1 metric tons in March and arrested two suspects: a Ukrainian citizen and a naturalized Russian citizen.
A second shipment of 725 kilograms was seized in April, and two citizens of an undisclosed South American country were detained shortly after arriving in Russia.
State media released a video showing FSB agents carrying out arrests and displaying trucks filled with brown packages, some labeled with the brand name “DIOR.”
The law enforcement agency did not specify the countries of origin for either shipment, saying only that the drugs had arrived from “Latin America” and “a South American country.”
All four suspects have been placed in pre-trial detention and face up to 20 years in prison on large-scale drug trafficking charges, the FSB said.
Russia has increasingly become a transit hub for Latin American cocaine heading to Europe following the 2022 closure of Ukraine’s Odesa port amid Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Last year, Russia’s customs service seized 1,000 briquettes of cocaine from Nicaragua marked “BBB” and “DIOR.”
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