MOSCOW, October 7 (RIA Novosti) - A Russian court has sentenced a German man and a Polish woman to seven and a half years in prison for smuggling 11 kilograms of cocaine into Russia, the Interior Ministry said Friday.
Criminal proceedings were launched after Russian customs officials searched the baggage of Stefan Bachmann and Jolanta Ritz, who had arrived in the country from Costa Rica, and found cocaine solution contained in bottles of wine. "During an investigation conducted by the Russian Interior Ministry's Investigation Committee, it was established that Stefan Bachmann and Jolanta Ritz were part of an international organized crime group, smuggling cocaine from South American countries via Panama, Cuba, and Russia, to Australia and western Europe," a ministry statement said.
