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Belgium extradites Dutch citizen charged with drug trafficking to Russia

A Dutch citizen charged with drug trafficking through Russia has been extradited from Belgium to Russia

MOSCOW, April 24. /TASS/. A Dutch citizen charged with drug trafficking through Russia has been extradited from Belgium to Russia, the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office press service reported on Tuesday.

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"Today, on April 24, the relevant authorities of the Kingdom of Belgium are extraditing citizen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Guido Walters to Russia at the request of the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office," the press service reported.

He is charged with the creation of a criminal network and illegal drug trafficking. According to investigators, Walters as a member of the criminal gang was extensively trafficking drugs from South American countries through Russia to the United Kingdom. The Russian Interior Ministry’s Investigative Department is investigating the criminal case against Walters.

Walters absconded from law enforcement authorities and in April 2010 was put on an international wanted list. He was found in Belgium in March 2013, and the General Prosecutor’s Office sent a request for his extradition. The decision of his extradition was reached in March 2018.

Russian Interior Ministry Spokeswoman Irina Volk reported that the Dutch, aged 58, who was extradited from Belgium, is the last member of the specified international drug gang. "The perpetrator was a member of a criminal gang that stuffed legal cargoes arriving to Russia from Colombia with cocaine. The drugs were then sent to Europe in legal cargoes that were transported for exports (in granular polyethylene, as a rule)," Volk reported. The drug ring supplied cocaine both to the UK and Northern Ireland, according to the Interior Ministry.

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