MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax) - Two foreigners have been detained in the Moscow region on suspicion of plotting to smuggle 570 kilograms of cocaine worth 1.5 billion rubles into European Union countries, the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Federal Customs Service of Russia said.
"Members of the Colombian cartel Cali were detained red-handed by the Federal Security Service and the Federal Customs Service while trying to smuggle a particularly large batch of Latin American narcotic drugs into EU states via Russian territory," the FSB press center said in a statement on Friday.
A total of 570 kilograms of cocaine were seized from them, the Federal Customs Service said. "The haul costs 1.5 billion rubles in the Russian black market in wholesale prices and over 5.5 billion rubles in retail prices," it said.
Russian special services identified two foreign citizens, "who arrived in Moscow allegedly to dismantle non-functioning transport equipment, but were known to special services as members of a transboundary cartel."
"They removed cocaine bricks from a piece of equipment on the premises of a warehouse in the Moscow region and transferred them to another cache inside a freight container due to be sent to the EU with a legal cargo," the FSB said.