MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/. European and Latin American criminal networks are increasingly using Russia as a conduit for the illicit trafficking of cocaine into the European Union, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said in a statement on Thursday.

"The FSB of Russia has observed increased activity by European and Latin American organized criminal groups aimed both at cornering the market for illicit drugs in Russia and at using our country as a conduit for the transit of cocaine into European Union countries," the statement reads.

In particular, FSB officers earlier seized three major shipments of narcotics at border checkpoints, which had been dispatched there by cross-border drug cartels. One such shipment, weighing 2,391 kilograms, was to be smuggled into Russia in March 2022 as part of a legal consignment of cargo (bananas) in a refrigerated container that arrived by sea from Ecuador at a port in Russia’s Leningrad Region. Another 598 kilograms of cocaine was found in a shipment of frozen meat delivered to St. Petersburg from Paraguay in a maritime container.

"Notably, Western media coverage of seizures of drug shipments in the Russian Federation that originated in Latin America seeks to harm Russia’s interests by making unsubstantiated conclusions about Russia’s [purportedly] increased role as a transit channel for drugs while failing to mention facts pertaining to seizures of cocaine smuggled into Europe from our country," the FSB concluded.