Overview
- The container arrived from Ecuador on the vessel Cool Emerald carrying a shipment of bananas.
- Inspectors at the Port of Saint Petersburg found 1,500 briquettes with a gross weight of about 1,750 kg and a net weight of 1,515 kg.
- The Federal Security Service and the Federal Customs Service carried out the interdiction based on information received from abroad.
- Baltic Customs opened a criminal case under point “b” of part 4 of Article 229.1 of the Russian Criminal Code for especially large-scale contraband.
- Authorities estimate the black-market value at over 20 billion rubles, and operational measures to identify and detain participants are underway with no arrests announced.