The court acquitted those accused of smuggling half a ton of cocaine from Ecuador

The Moscow City Court acquitted five accused (three Lithuanian citizens and two Russians) of smuggling 472 kg of cocaine from Ecuador to St. Petersburg. Attention was paid to the decision of the court Vedomosti.

Ernestas Kazlauskas, Mindaugas Koretsas, Igoris Grigas, Georgy and Ivan Radomirov were accused of creating an organized criminal group for the supply of drugs. According to investigators, the defendants created a criminal community in 2013 and supplied cocaine from Ecuador to Russia until their arrest in April 2019. Investigators counted 15 batches of cocaine with a total weight of 472 kg, which were transported through the port of St. Petersburg. According to investigators, cocaine was hidden in containers on ships.

The defendants were threatened with life imprisonment (parts 1, 2 of article 210, paragraphs “a”, “b” of part 4 of article 229.1, part 3 of article 30, part 5 of article 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The criminal case consisted of 270 volumes. During the investigation, more than 230 witnesses were interrogated, more than 50 searches and 150 examinations were carried out.

The jury considered that there was no event of a crime in the creation of the organized criminal group, and the involvement of the defendants in drug smuggling was not proven. The defendants were released in the courtroom.

As lawyer Yelena Belozerov told Vedomosti, interrogations of operational officers were presented at the jury trial, referring to the availability of operational information about the involvement of the accused in smuggling. During a detailed interrogation, they could not explain the sources of such information and referred to the secrecy of the data. According to the defender, the witnesses for the prosecution were former operatives of the Federal Drug Control Service, previously convicted of fraud against Igoris Grigas and Ivan Radomirov.

Anastasia Larina