ST. PETERSBURG, October 25. /TASS/. Officers of Russia’s North-West Customs Department have seized a record 3.8 tons of drugs this year, the agency’s deputy head reported.

"This year, 3.8 tons of drugs and more than 50 kilograms of drug products have been seized from circulation within the framework of initiated criminal cases," Pavel Terentyev said.

Last year, customs officers seized about 2.5 tons of drugs, in previous years, the volume of seized drugs also did not exceed the figures of 2024. The figure of 3.8 tons of drugs is associated with several successful operations in the first half of the year to seize large shipments of cocaine that arrived in St. Petersburg by sea, Terentyev added.

In total, officers of Russia's North-West Customs Department this year initiated 289 criminal cases under various articles, 28 of which were drug offenses. A total of 42 criminal cases were initiated for crimes committed by organized criminal groups, ten criminal cells were identified, three of which were involved in drug smuggling. Also this year, the officers initiated more than 20,000 administrative cases and issued fines totaling two billion rubles (over 20.6 million dollars).