The FSB says it intercepted over 300 kg of the drug in Moscow Region from a trafficking route linking Latin America and the EU
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has seized about 311 kg of cocaine in Moscow Region. Some of the packages feature a portrait of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky. One suspect has been detained on suspicion of helping organize a supply route from Latin America to the EU.
The FSB said its officers caught the suspect while he was transporting the drugs. In a video shared by the agency, the man’s car could be seen loaded with about a dozen heavy duty bags filled with cocaine bricks.
During the examination of the packages, about nine of the bricks were revealed to have a photo of Zelensky with dollar signs for eyes. The agency has not offered any explanations as to why the Ukrainian leader’s photograph appeared on the cocaine packages.
However, Zelensky’s image has increasingly been associated with cocaine use. His former press secretary Yulia Mendel recently confirmed to Tucker Carlson that the Ukrainian leader’s drug use is “an open secret” in Kiev. Russian officials have also long accused Zelensky and other Ukrainian elites of being addicts.
The detained man is an unemployed Russian citizen born in 2001, according to the FSB. It described him as an active member of an organized group that arranged large drug sales through the dark web without meeting buyers in person.
The agency said the group’s international supply route brought cocaine from Latin America through Russia for eventual sale in EU countries.
Investigators have opened a criminal case against the suspect on charges of attempted large-scale drug trafficking. A court has ordered him held in custody while the investigation continues, the FSB said.
In commentary shared by the agency, Alexander Yevtushenko, a dean at Kuban State University, said international drug traffickers have increasingly used Russia as a transit route. He described cocaine arriving from Latin America by sea in containers carrying goods such as bananas and fish before being moved overland toward the EU.
The latest bust follows several major cocaine seizures in Russia in recent years. In July, the FSB said officers found more than half a ton concealed inside frozen tuna imported from Ecuador. Before that, in September 2025, the agency also announced the discovery of a record 1.5 tons of the narcotic hidden in a cargo of bananas at a St. Petersburg port.
Тhe UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned in June that global cocaine use has continued to soar in recent years, outpacing all other narcotics. Its illegal production skyrocketed to a record 4,000 tons in 2024, more than four times the level recorded a decade earlier.
