Russia jails former US diplomat for smuggling drugs

MOSCOW, 18 June 2022, (TON): A Moscow court has sentenced a former US diplomat to 14 years in prison for large-scale cannabis smuggling, the latest American to be caught up in Russia’s legal system.

Russia and the United States regularly clash over the detention of each other’s citizens and sometimes exchange them in scenes reminiscent of the Cold War.

The sentence comes as relations between Moscow and the West, particularly Washington, are tense after Moscow began its military operation in pro-Western Ukraine.

The Khimki court said in a statement “the American citizen (Marc) Fogel has been found guilty.”

It said Fogel committed “large-scale drugs smuggling by crossing the Russian border, as well as large-scale illegal storage of drugs without a commercial purpose.”

Russian authorities in January said Fogel had been arrested by customs officers after arriving from New York with his wife at Sheremetyevo airport in Moscow.

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