International Drug Cartels Seeking to Turn Russia into Transit Hub for Cocaine

MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. International drug cartels are making significant efforts to establish a foothold in Russia, seeking to turn the country into a major transit hub for cocaine shipments from Latin America to the European Union, according to Alexander Yevtushenko, Dean of the Department of History, Sociology, and International Relations at Kuban State University. His remarks were released by the Public Relations Center of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

The FSB previously reported the arrest in the Moscow Region of a man involved in organizing drug shipments from Latin America to EU countries. He was apprehended in the act, with 311 kilograms of cocaine seized from him.

"Recently, international drug cartels have been drawing Russia into their criminal activities. Our country is becoming a major hub and transit zone, forming part of the illicit cocaine trafficking system," Yevtushenko said.

According to the expert, cocaine enters Russia from Latin America by sea through ports before being transported to major cities such as Moscow and St. Petersburg. Shipments are concealed in containers intended for food products, including bananas and fish.

"From there, it is essentially transported overland to European Union countries. The scale of this activity is staggering," Yevtushenko said.

He cited several recent seizures as evidence of the scale of the trafficking. In September 2025, authorities confiscated a 1.5-ton shipment of cocaine, while in July 2026, a 500-kilogram shipment was seized in St. Petersburg.

"All this indicates that the activities of drug traffickers in Russia are indeed reaching an industrial scale, and, unfortunately, an increasing number of our people are becoming involved in them," the expert said.

He added that traffickers use various covert communication and data-transfer channels, including the dark web, to facilitate their operations. Despite these measures, he said, the schemes are being uncovered by the FSB and other law enforcement agencies.