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Moscow police seize 500 kg of contraband black caviar

Money, bank cards, packaging containers, printed products, tools, instruments, documents and secret ledgers were confiscated from the alleged wrongdoers

© Anton Novoderezhkin/TASS

MOSCOW, December 25. /TASS/. The Moscow police have detained four people suspected of smuggling caviar of fish recognized as rare and endangered in Russia, almost half a tonne of black caviar has been seized, Russian Interior Ministry’s spokeswoman Irina Volk told TASS.

"Suspects in illegal trafficking of caviar of fish included in the Russian Red Data Book [list of rare and endangered species — TASS] were detained. According to data available, the criminals were processing and prepacking black caviar harvested illegally, ostensibly in the Russian Far East and the Volga Region. The end product was sold at Moscow markets as legal," Volk said.

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"Around 475 kg of sturgeon caviar was discovered and seized as well as money, bank cards, packaging containers, printed products, tools, instruments and, moreover, documents and secret ledgers important for the criminal investigation. Samples of the products confiscated were sent for analysis," she added.

Chief aide to the head of the Russian Investigative Committee’s Investigative Directorate for Moscow Yuliya Ivanova clarified that the committee had opened a criminal case against one woman and three men on the charges of illegally obtaining, storing, transporting and selling highly valuable aquatic bioresources recognized as rare and endangered in Russia committed collusively by a group of people or an organized group. Law enforcement agents are now searching for their accomplices, she specified.

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