Security services found more than half a ton of drugs in a contraband shipment from Ecuador at a St. Petersburg port, the agency has said
Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced that it has disrupted a major drug supply route from Latin America to the country and has seized over half a ton of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of frozen fish from Ecuador.
In a statement on Wednesday, the agency said the drugs were found in a container that arrived at the Great Port of St. Petersburg by sea. The cocaine had been concealed inside legally imported frozen, ungutted tuna carcasses.
A Russian citizen suspected of helping organize the scheme has been detained. An FSB operative noted that the suspect was unemployed and had been linked to a criminal group involved in cocaine smuggling.
The agency released footage of the raid, showing officers detaining the man and cutting open dozens of frozen tuna with a chainsaw to remove hundreds of packages of cocaine.
FSB operatives also searched the suspect’s home, where they seized digital devices containing crypto wallets with the equivalent of $613,000, 13 luxury watches worth more than $1.3 million, and five high-end cars valued at no less than $1.6 million.
Investigators in St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region have opened a criminal case on attempted drug trafficking on an especially large scale. The suspect is being held in custody and faces a maximum sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
The bust follows several major cocaine seizures in Russia in recent years. In September 2025, the FSB said officials in St. Petersburg had intercepted a record 1,500 kg of cocaine hidden in a shipment of bananas from Latin America, worth more than $240 million.
The 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. Consumption has also increased from an estimated 17 million people worldwide in 2013 to more than 25 million in 2024.
