Ufa court sentences 33 members of int'l drug gang
UFA. Sept 21 (Interfax) - The Sovetsky District Court in Ufa has convicted 33 residents of Bashkortostan, a number of adjoining Russian regions, Latvia, and Azerbaijan of drug-related crimes, the Bashkortostan prosecution service said in a statement on Thursday.
The convicts will serve from four to 13 years in general and maximum-security penitentiaries, the statement said.
The court established that the gang perpetrated over 30 grave felonies by dealing drugs in Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, Udmurtia, and the Chelyabinsk, Omsk, and Kursk regions in the period between October 2014 and May 2015, the statement said.
"There were 'wholesale mules' in the gang: they received drug batches of over one kilogram and packaged them into street doses. Their accomplices placed the drugs into caches, the location of which was disclosed to clients upon payment," the statement said.
Drug control officers stopped the criminal activity in 2015. The criminals were detained in Ufa, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Izhevsk, Kursk, and Kazan, the statement said.
Over 22 kilograms of forbidden substances were found in their caches, apartments, and vehicles. In addition, law-enforcement officers seized plenty of computers, cell phones, and SIM cards used for criminal activity, 14 electronic scales, and plastic bags containing drugs, the statement said.
Depending on their role and degree of involvement, gang members were found guilty of conspiracy and illegal possession of narcotics.