The drugs were discovered in a shipment of coffee that arrived in St Petersburg from Belgium
Russian customs officials have confiscated over 1.2 metric tons of cocaine that had arrived at the Port of St Petersburg, Russia’s Federal Customs Service (FTC) reported on Wednesday. The incident marks the second time this month that authorities have thwarted an attempt to ship a large amount of cocaine into the country.
According to the FTC report, the cocaine was discovered in a shipment of coffee, in a container that had arrived from the Belgian port city of Antwerp. Employees of the North-Western Customs Administration as well as the Federal Security Service (FSB) scanned the container and discovered a large number of rectangular briquettes of pressed white powder.
Further examination revealed and confirmed that the white powder was cocaine. The FTC put the black-market value of the narcotics at over 13 billion rubles ($146.9 million).
In its Telegram post announcing the seizure of the drugs, the FTC posted a picture of a cat drinking coffee with the caption “what an invigorating Belgian coffee.”
Russian authorities have opened a criminal case in response to the drug bust; those found responsible could face life in prison and a fine of up to 1 million rubles.
Two weeks ago, another shipment of cocaine was discovered at the same port; a thousand briquettes of cocaine weighing over a metric ton and worth more than 11 billion rubles ($123.2 million) were discovered in a container that arrived on ship hailing from Nicaragua. Customs officials dedicated another cat meme to the seizure.
A criminal case was opened following the first drug bust; however, there have been no updates as to who may have been responsible.
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