THE HALFAX HEIMDALL AUGUR

Record cocaine haul busted in St. Petersburg - FSB - RT Officials in Saint Petersburg have seized more than 1,500kg of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of bananas from Latin America aboard the ‘Cool Emerald’ cargo vessel, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) has said. The black market price of the illegal cargo is estimated to be 20 billion rubles ($240 million), the agency said in a statement on Friday. The“extra large”batch of cocaine was intercepted by FSB operatives and customs officials at the Great Port of Saint Petersburg in late August, following a tip from“foreign partners,”the statement read. The FSB has published footage showing numerous banana boxes containing packages of cocaine. The packages numbered 1,500, weighing a total of 1,750kg, including 1,515kg of the narcotics, according to the statement. A major drug smuggling investigation has been launched over the incident, the agency said, adding that investigators are continuing to establish who was involved in the criminal operation. This follows a July bust in which the FSB reportedly seized 820kg of cocaine. Late last year, an even bigger batch, weighing 1,200kg, was discovered at the port of Saint Petersb…

Cocaine Smuggling Into Russia Up Tenfold Since Invasion of Ukraine Jan. 21, 2025 Cocaine seized at the Sheremetyevo airport. Moskva News Agency The volume of cocaine seized by Russian authorities has surged since the country launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, reflecting a significant shift in international smuggling routes and techniques, the pro-Kremlin daily Izvestia has reported . Between 2023 and 2024, Russian officials confiscated approximately 5.2 tons of cocaine valued at 350 billion rubles ($3.4 billion), a tenfold increase on earlier levels, according to the Moscow-based outlet. The surge is linked to the rerouting of international drug trafficking channels. After the closure of Ukraine's Odesa port, a consequence of Moscow’s invasion, smugglers redirected shipments through Russia, which has become a key transit hub for cocaine destined for European markets. This change coincides with a 24% increase in global cocaine production in 2022, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The oversupply in global markets has driven traffickers to explore new routes. In 2024, Russia reported record cocaine confiscations, seizing over 3.7 ton…

RFE03 Jul 2026, 17:27 GMT+10 Early one morning late last August, the container ship Cool Emerald eased into the port of St. Petersburg, Russia, to find customs and Federal Security Service (FSB) agents waiting on shore. The Russian authorities had allegedly been tipped off by colleagues abroad to the possibility that drugs were concealed in the cargo of bananas from Ecuador. Sure enough, they said they found a few thousand bricks of tightly packed white powder: About 1.5 metric tons of cocaine, testers allegedly found, with a street value of some 20 billion rubles ($257 million). For Russian customs, it was a record haul. ForCool Carriers, the Cyprus-based commercial operator of Cool Emerald, it was one of several incidents in recent years in which one of the dozens of vessels in its fleet has allegedly been used to transport drugs. Among them: In October 2023, British authorities said they discovered 137 kilograms of cocaine attached to the hull of the Cool Express; in spring 2024, St. Petersburg customs said they found 60 kilograms of cocaine on the same vessel; that August, more than 575 kilograms of cocaine were allegedly dumped from the Cool Express off Denmark. Cool Carr…

Record cocaine haul busted in St. Petersburg FSB RT.com19 Sep 2025, 17:19 GMT+10 The black market price tag for the illegal cargo is a staggering 20 billion rubles ($240 million), according to the agency Officials in Saint Petersburg have seized more than 1,500kg of cocaine hidden inside a shipment of bananas from Latin America aboard the 'Cool Emerald' cargo vessel, Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) has said. The black market price of the illegal cargo is estimated to be 20 billion rubles ($240 million), the agency said in a statement on Friday. The "extra large" batch of cocaine was intercepted by FSB operatives and customs officials at the Great Port of Saint Petersburg in late August, following a tip from "foreign partners," the statement read. The FSB has published footage showing numerous banana boxes containing packages of cocaine. The packages numbered 1,500, weighing a total of 1,750kg, including 1,515kg of the narcotics, according to the statement. A major drug smuggling investigation has been launched over the incident, the agency said, adding that investigators are continuing to establish who was involved in the criminal operation. width="560" height="31…

Russian money laundering networks uncovered linking narco traffickers ... Moscow's Federation Tower, center, houses two entities accused of connections to a sprawling money laundering scheme. Image: Serge Kutuzov via Unsplash Russian money laundering networks uncovered linking narco traffickers, ransomware gangs and Kremlin spies Following an investigation into how a ransomware gang was cashing out extorted cryptocurrency, British law enforcement on Wednesday announced uncovering a sprawling Russian money laundering system used by transnational drug traffickers, cybercriminals, Moscow elites evading sanctions and even the Kremlin’s espionage operations. Internationally more than 80 people have already been arrested in Operation Destabilise — led by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) — which was publicized as the United States announced sanctions against the networks’ most senior perpetrators, aiming to disrupt their access to global financial exchange systems. The investigation “has exposed billion-dollar money laundering networks operating in a way previously unknown to international law enforcement,” according to Rob Jones, the NCA’s director general of operations, who added…

Russia seizes 1,515 kg of cocaine-Xinhua - 新华网 Source: Xinhua Editor: huaxia 2025-09-19 21:21:15 MOSCOW, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday it seized 1,515 kg of cocaine from Ecuador at a port in St. Petersburg. Following intelligence provided by foreign partners, the FSB and Russian Federal Customs Service discovered 1,500 bricks of cocaine hidden in a banana shipment on a vessel from Ecuador on Aug. 29, said the FSB in a statement. The confiscated drugs were valued at more than 20 billion rubles (around 240 million U.S. dollars). A criminal case has been opened over the smuggling of narcotic substances in particularly large quantities.■

Russia's record cocaine bust exposes expanding trafficking routes from ... Russia has announced its largest-ever cocaine seizure, an operation that not only underscores the growing presence of drug trafficking in the country but also highlights how global criminal networks are adapting to tighter controls in Western Europe by turning eastward. The 1,515 kilograms of cocaine-hidden in banana shipments from Ecuador-reflects a troubling new trend: Russia is becoming a key destination and transit hub in the international cocaine trade. On September 19, the Federal Security Service (FSB) revealed the seizure of 1,500 bricks of cocaine in the Port of Saint Petersburg, cleverly concealed within boxes of bananas shipped from Ecuador. Officials released footage showing the bricks stacked in a warehouse, a stark reminder of the vast resources and ingenuity that drug cartels deploy to move their products undetected. This record seizure is not an isolated incident. Intelligence reports and global monitoring organizations have consistently pointed to Russia’s rising importance in international trafficking routes, as drug syndicates increasingly exploit its trade links with Latin America. Ec…