Cocaine tracks: Russian court gave Kolubian drug lord 19 years

The Moscow Regional Court has sentenced Colombian drug lord Carlos Alberto Munoz Ramirez to 19 years in prison. But he will spend about 15 years in a high—security penal colony - his term of detention has been deducted. According to investigators, in July 2016, the Colombian created a gang of four people who were smuggling cocaine into Russia. In 2019, Munoz was detained in Colombia, and in 2024 he was extradited to Moscow. How large quantities of the drug were imported into Russia is described in the Izvestia article.

Colombian drug trafficker gets 19 years in Moscow

The Moscow Regional Court has sentenced Colombian drug lord Carlos Albert Munoz Ramirez to 19 years in a high-security penal colony. He was accused of smuggling more than 3 kg of cocaine into Russia.

According to investigators, in July 2016, Ramirez created an organized criminal group of four people. The indictment includes two episodes of their activities. In one case, the criminals tried to send more than 2.3 kg of cocaine from Colombia to Russia. The illegal cargo was discovered by law enforcement agencies of Sheremetyevo airport, according to a statement from the Prosecutor General's Office.

In the same year, 2016, "about a kilogram of cocaine was delivered from Paraguay to Russia in a similar way, discovered at Vnukovo airport," the press service of the supervisory authority reported.

The criminals transported cocaine from Colombia in a cardboard box among metal springs and other parts. A substance from Paraguay was found in the inner cavity of the DJ's control panel.

In 2017, the drug dealer was put on the wanted list. The following year, he was arrested in Colombia, and in December 2024, he was extradited to Russia. The Prosecutor General's Office, announcing the extradition of Carlos Munoz, stressed that this is the first time that Colombia has approved the extradition of its citizen to another country.

The judge of the Moscow City Court, announcing the verdict, noted that the time he spent in custody in 2018 and since September 2021 will be counted during Munoz's stay in the colony. According to the judge, this is equivalent to four years in prison.

According to the law, every day in custody is counted as one and a half days in a high-security penal colony, lawyer Andrei Mishonov recalled.

"This is a common practice, it applies to all defendants, regardless of nationality and the volume of the case," he said.

The defendant's lawyer declined to comment on the verdict. Earlier, he asked for the minimum possible punishment to be imposed on the Colombian, taking into account his active cooperation with the investigation and full admission of guilt.

— Munoz Ramirez has been in custody for almost four years, which has affected his health. Now his chronic diseases have worsened," the lawyer said, speaking at a court hearing on August 20. On that day, the prosecutor requested 19 years in prison for the accused. The maximum penalty under the articles on drug smuggling and illegal transportation is 20 years.

In addition to his term in a high—security penal colony, the defendant was also fined 900 thousand rubles.

Rare extraditations

Extradition of foreigners who have committed crimes to Russia is quite rare, and some countries ignore requests from law enforcement agencies, lawyer Vitaly Ulianenko told Izvestia.

For example, in June 2025, the Prosecutor General's Office announced the extradition of Lebanese drug trafficker Joseph Adciti from Peru to Russia. According to the investigation, he, as part of an organized group, committed the smuggling and transfer of narcotic drugs, as well as an attempt to smuggle and illegally sell more than 89 kg of cocaine.

This group delivered drugs to St. Petersburg using caches in a container with a cargo of bananas, which was supplied on transatlantic ships plying between Ecuador and Russia. The cocaine was then hidden in caches in trucks and shipped across the borders of Russia and Georgia to Turkey.

In 2015, the group's activities were suppressed, its members were arrested, but Joseph Adciti disappeared. He was detained in Peru only in January 2025.

And in 2021, the Spanish authorities, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office, extradited Ecuadorian Cortez Quinones Crancisco Xavier to Russia. According to the investigation, in the fall of 2018, he and two accomplices transported 7 kg of cocaine from Ecuador to St. Petersburg on the Baltic Autumn ship. After that, the drugs were sold in Russia. The Ecuadorian was put on the wanted list and detained in Spain in the summer of 2020.

In December 2022, the St. Petersburg City Court sentenced Cortez Xavier, an Ecuadorian, to 17 years in prison.

In 2022, the amount of cocaine that was attempted to be imported into Russia amounted to 88.3 kg, in 2023 - 409.9 kg, and in 2024 it reached 2.8 tons, the press service of the Federal Customs Service (FCS) told Izvestia.

According to the Interior Ministry, from 2021 to 2024, law enforcement agencies seized about 8 tons of cocaine. A total of 37.8 tons of narcotic drugs were seized in Russia last year, according to a report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Over the past two years, the amount of cocaine seized in Russia has increased rapidly — about 5.2 tons of the drug with a total value of more than 350 billion rubles have been confiscated, Izvestia previously estimated, analyzing data from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the FSB and the FCS.