Lengthy sentences given to two members of liquidated drug cartel - FSKN
MOSCOW. June 7 (Interfax) - A court has given lengthy sentences to two members of an international ring which made a $54 billion profit selling narcotic drugs, the Federal Drug Control Service's press service told Interfax on Tuesday.
"The trial of transnational organized ring members Ilya Kudryavtsev and Alexander Nedugov came to an end in the Perm Dzerzhinsky District Court on June 7. The defendants were found guilty of illegally producing large quantities of the narcotic substance amphetamine outside Russia. The third accomplice identified by police - Pavel Kudryavtsev - was put on the international wanted list," a representative of the press service said.
"Production of methylbenzene ketone in Russian territory was stopped thanks to the long inquiry made jointly with law enforcement agencies from Europe and the CIS," he said. Ilya Kudryavtsev was given a 14.5-year sentence and his total prison time will reach 17.5 years, including an earlier sentence. The court sentenced Nedugov to 12.5 years in prison. The search for Pavel Kudryavtsev, the organizer of the illegal business, continues.
The drugs were produced in commercial quantities by use of phenylpropanol, brand name methylbenzene ketone, at Pavel Kudryavtsev's Trivektr LLC in the period from 2002-2010.
"In the period of its existence, Trivektr produced over 100 tonnes of methylbenzene ketone and sold the substance to drug dealers. These are cold hard facts: 100 tonnes of methylbenzene ketone stand for 70 tonnes of pure drugs, 700 tonnes of street drugs and 3.5 billion pills, which is one pill per practically half of the Earth's population," the press service representative said.
The aggregate profit of precursor producers, smugglers, drug labs and drug distribution networks reached $54 billion, he said.
