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Russia hands down first life sentence to drug dealer

Spokesman for the Russian prosecutor general’s Office said earlier that the state prosecutor had for the first time in Russia’s history requested the court to hand life imprisonment to a drug dealer

© Yuri Smityuk/TASS

MOSCOW, December 21. /TASS/. The Moscow Regional Court has handed Russia’s first life imprisonment for drug dealing to Tajikistan’s citizen Sherali Tabarov, the Court Spokesperson Natalya Osipova told TASS.

"The court has sentenced Tabarov to life imprisonment in a maximum security correctional facility," she said.

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Russian police take bite out of bitcoin laundering racket linked to drug sales

Spokesman for the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office Alexander Kurennoi said earlier that the state prosecutor had for the first time in Russia’s history requested the court to hand life imprisonment to a drug dealer. A total of 15 Tajik nationals faced charges in this case, all of whom were involved in attempting to smuggle into Russia around 600 kilograms of heroin and distribute it in 2012-2015.

The rest of the defendants were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from six to 25 years.

In 2003, a court in Russia’s Penza Region handed Tabarov ten years behind bars for crimes related to drug trafficking, but he was extradited to Tajikistan upon Dushanbe’s request. However, after serving out his sentence, Tabarov many times traveled to Russia using a forged passport, and became the leader of a criminal group involved in the smuggling of heroin from Afghanistan and Tajikistan. The drug traffickers used trucks carrying fruit to transport heroin.

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