Turkish, Azeri drug smugglers sentenced in Kuzbass
KEMEROVO. June 27 (Interfax) - The Novokuznetsk Kuibyshevsky District Court has found Turkish citizen Ali Barin and Azeri citizen Elman Talybov guilty of smuggling 263 kilograms of hashish into the Kemerovo region.
Hashish stashed in sheet glass boxes was seized in Novokuznetsk in 2011, the regional department of the Federal Drug Control Service said on Friday.
The illegal cargo arrived in Novokuznetsk from Astrakhan by train. The boxes were brought to a wholesale warehouse and the accomplices were detained while unpacking the cargo. Some 246 packages of hashish were seized by drug control officers.
The total weight of the seized hashish is 263 kilograms. The Federal Drug Control Service assessed its cost at 200 million rubles.
Barin and Talybov pleaded not guilty but the court said their guilt had been proven and sentenced each of the defendants to 15 years in a high security penitentiary.
The third accomplice, Vidadi Aziz ogla Azizov, was sentenced earlier. He pleaded guilty and cooperated with the police. A court sentenced him to five years in a high security penitentiary.