The Stavropol Regional Court issued a verdict in the case of the former head of the service for control of legal drug trafficking of the Federal Service for Drug Control (UFSKN) in the Stavropol Territory, Sergei Ponarin. The court found him guilty of repeatedly accepting bribes and sentenced him to nine years in a maximum security colony. According to investigators, Ponarin imposed tribute on companies involved in the sale of confectionery poppy seeds. He frightened businessmen by the fact that their product exceeded the maximum permissible level of impurities containing narcotic substances (during the industrial processing of poppy seeds, they sometimes contain remnants of poppy straw, from which opium can theoretically be extracted). And for inaction on his part he demanded a bribe. As the court found, in July-August 2005, Ponarin thus received 135 thousand rubles from one poppy dealer, which amounted to 30% of the profit received by the entrepreneur. Sergei Zhuk, an accomplice in receiving bribes, also received 20% of the profit from each transaction of the merchant. When transferring the next payment of 1 million rubles. Ponarin and Zhuk were detained by FSB officers. The court also sentenced Ponarin to a fine of 100 thousand rubles. and stripped him of the special rank of police lieutenant colonel.
