FSB Busts Major Cocaine Trafficking Operation with 1.8 Tons of Drugs on Route to Europe

On Tuesday, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) announced that it had confiscated over 1.8 metric tons of cocaine intended for the European Union, with a street value estimated at 6 billion rubles (approximately $74.5 million).

The agency revealed that it intercepted the initial shipment of 1.1 metric tons in March, resulting in the arrest of two individuals: one from Ukraine and another who is a naturalized Russian citizen.

A subsequent seizure of 725 kilograms occurred in April, leading to the detention of two individuals from an undisclosed South American nation shortly after their arrival in Russia.

State media broadcasted footage of FSB officers making the arrests and displaying trucks loaded with brown packages, some of which were labeled with the brand “DIOR.”

The agency did not disclose the specific countries from which the shipments originated, referring only to “Latin America” and “a South American country.”

According to the FSB, all four suspects are currently in pre-trial detention and could face up to 20 years in prison on charges of large-scale drug trafficking.

Russia has increasingly become a transit point for cocaine from Latin America destined for Europe, especially since the closure of the Odesa port in Ukraine in 2022 due to Russia’s military invasion.

In the previous year, Russian customs officials seized 1,000 bricks of cocaine from Nicaragua that were branded with “BBB” and “DIOR.”