MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian customs agents detained 34 Chinese citizens at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport with 230 kilograms (over 500 pounds) of illegal synthetic drugs, the Russian Federal Customs Service (FCS) said Friday.An investigation into a drug smuggling case has been launched immediately.
“While checking passengers at customs control on March 6, who had arrived from a Beijing-Moscow flight, employees from the Sheremetyevo customs detained 34 Chinese citizens who were attempting to smuggle 230 kilograms of methamphetamines into the territory of Russia,” the FCS said in a statement.
11 December 2014, 19:03 GMT
According to the 2014 US Department of State report, China is one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of precursor chemicals which are used in the illicit manufacture of illegal narcotics, with some 160,000 precursor chemical facilities across the country. The report also found that China was the third top exporter of ephedrine and fourth top exporter of pseudoephedrine in 2012.
China has escalated its crackdown on drug trafficking amid a steep increase of drug-related cases in the country. Capital punishment is a common sentence in drug trafficking cases.
In June 2013, Chinese authorities said that the number of registered drug addicts in the country topped 2 million.
