Ecuador was convicted of 14 years for cocaine smuggling

The St. Petersburg City Court sentenced the citizen of Ecuador and Spain Monteoy Fernando Alfonso Sanchez to 14 years in a maximum security colony for drug smuggling on an especially large scale (paragraphs “A”, “B” of part 4 of article 229.1, part 5 of article 228.1 of the Criminal Code). This was reported by the United press service of the courts.

Sanchez was detained in November 2018. The investigation believes that a month before, the defendant joined the organized crime group, which was created by Cortes of Kinoles Francisco Shavier, nicknamed Pedro, a participant in the South American drug cartel, operating in South America and the European Union. According to investigators, Pedro invited Sanchez to transport cocaine from Ecuador to Russia and promised to pay him 10 thousand euros for each supply.

They decided to try the scheme in St. Petersburg. In October 2018, in Ecuador, on board the Baltic Autumn refrigerated vessel, which was traveling to St. Petersburg, plunged about 7 kilograms of cocaine. Sanchez had to pick them up and sell them. According to the case materials, if the successful smuggling delivery, organized crime groups planned to bring 50 kilograms of cocaine to Russia weekly. At the same time , the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the Baltic Customs created "secretly controlled conditions in order to verify the organized crime group."

When Sanchez picked up cocaine from the ship, he was met by a law enforcement officer under the guise and handed him a dummy of 16 thousand dollars and 122.5 thousand euros. When Sanchez accepted them, he was detained, and cocaine was seized. The alleged assistant Sanchez was never found.

The defendant pleaded guilty.