KAZAN, November 1 (RIA Novosti) - A court in Russia’s Tatarstan sentenced six members of a heroin trafficking ring to long jail terms on Thursday.
Five Tajiks and one resident of Tatarstan were sentenced to prison terms of nine to 17 years, a Supreme Court spokesman said.
The ring, which was organized in 2009, included one group based in Tajikistan that was responsible for wholesale heroin supplies from Afghanistan and another that ran a retail drug operation across Tatarstan, according to prosecutors.
The illegal business had turnover in the tens of thousands of dollars, they said.
The drugs were smuggled into Russia by “mules” carrying 200-300 grams of drugs in their stomachs on flights from the Tajik capital Dushanbe.
Meanwhile, Russian security forces recorded another big drug seizure on Thursday, detaining a man near Krasnoyarsk as he took delivery on four kilograms of opium and four kilograms of heroin from Tajikistan worth about 10 million rubles (over $300,000).
He faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.
The federal drug control service estimates there are more than 600,000 drug addicts and between 2.5 million and 6 million users in Russia.
