Customs officers stopped a channel for smuggling military goods to the US and the EU

Customs officers have stopped the smuggling of military products to the United States and the European Union. This was reported in the press service of the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation on December 3.

"A total of 20 parcels with sights for sniper rifles, automatic rifles of various modifications on the basis of AK and grenade launchers, as well as with means of armor protection and military ammunition were intercepted," the agency said in its Telegram channel.

The organizer of the criminal scheme was a citizen of one of the EU countries. The man recruited executors from Russian cities via messengers. They received parcels with military goods from sellers in Russia, repackaged them and sent them to recipients abroad.

The organizer paid for the goods and intermediary services in cryptocurrency.

Nineteen criminal cases were brought against the foreigner under paragraph "c" of part 2 of article 226.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Smuggling of other weapons, military equipment, committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy"). The sanction for this crime is punishment from five to 10 years of imprisonment with a fine of up to 1 million rubles.

Earlier, on November 18, customs officers of St. Petersburg Pulkovo airport found 4 million rubles in the possession of a 60-year-old passenger. It is specified that the man flew from Istanbul. He did not declare a large sum in advance, and the inspector showed only an envelope with $10 thousand (999 thousand rubles). However, during the search in the "green" corridor was found more than $34 thousand, €10 and 600 rubles. It is specified that the amount amount amounted to about Br4 million at the rate of the Central Bank.