In Sevastopol, the case of an attempt to sell “synthetics” and legalize more than two million rubles is being investigated

According to investigators, a 31-year-old housewife with many children found a job in the shadow segment of the Internet as a keeper of an underground drug market for the contactless distribution of synthetic drugs in the city of Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea. Following the instructions of anonymous curators, the woman had to take batches of synthetic drugs packaged in single doses from caches, store them in a safe place and then sell them. After sending information to employers about the locations of the caches and the purchase of prohibited substances by those interested, she was entitled to payment for each equipped hiding place. The illegal activities of the defendant were stopped by operatives of the Drug Control Department of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Sevastopol in the spring of 2024,” noted the press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in Sevastopol.

During an examination carried out at the attacker’s place of residence, law enforcement officers found and seized over 45 grams of “synthetics” in a chest of drawers, contained in 109 polymer packages, as well as cell phones, bank cards and other material evidence.

Based on this fact, a criminal case was initiated on the grounds of a crime under Part 3 of Art. 30 — paragraph “d”, part 4, art. 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Attempted illegal sale of drugs on a large scale by a group of persons by prior conspiracy.”

In the course of further work, investigators established the involvement of the pawnbroker in the legalization of income from illegal activities. Thus, she converted the wages she received from drug sales in the form of cryptocurrency using online exchange services into Russian rubles, and then transferred them to her friend’s e-wallets and fraudulently obtained bank cards. Thus, the attacker managed to legalize more than 2.1 million rubles.

A criminal case has been initiated against the accused under Part 3 of Article 174.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Legalization (laundering) of funds or other property acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime.”

The preliminary investigation is currently ongoing.

source: press service of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for the city of Sevastopol