MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Police officers conducted searches at the Anglo-American school in Moscow as part of the investigation into the criminal case against former US Embassy employee Mark Vogel. According to a video released by the Russian Interior Ministry’s press center, documents, personal belongings and a baseball bat were seized during the searches.

Last summer, Mark Vogel and his wife arrived in Moscow on a flight from New York. At customs control, marijuana and hashish oil were found in the possession of the US citizen, after which he was detained and a criminal case was initiated against him for smuggling and possession of drugs on a large scale. The Khimki city court arrested him because the man may have absconded on embassy territory.

Mark Vogel is a teacher at the Anglo-American School and formerly an employee of the US Embassy in Moscow. Until May 2021, he, like his wife, had diplomatic status. According to a theory of the investigators, the defendant could use his status to organize a channel for supplying drugs to Russia with the purpose of subsequent selling to students at the school. Possible accomplices of the defendant are currently being identified.