The Russian Interior Ministry announced on August 12 that a man from the United Arab Emirates has been extradited to Russia, accused of trafficking tobacco products and using counterfeit excise stamps.
At Dubai airport, representatives of local authorities handed over the defendant to Interpol officers and Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) officials. According to investigators, the man organized a criminal group to supply unlabeled cigarettes from the UAE into Russia through Kazakhstan. The contraband was transported by rail under the guise of other goods and stored in Moscow and the Moscow region.
A message on the Maks messaging platform stated: “Tobacco products worth more than 600 million rubles were illegally imported into the Russian Federation. In addition, some of the goods were moved using fake excise stamps.”
The investigation revealed that the man coordinated accomplices throughout the entire logistics chain. After the criminal case was initiated, he disappeared abroad and was placed on Russia’s international wanted list in 2018 by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
The agency reported that foreign authorities detained him in the UAE in August of this year.
