News

A court has recognized the evidence collected by the Fifth Office of the Head Office of the Investigative Committee (based in the city of Novosibirsk) sufficient to convict former officials of the Novosibirsk Region branch of the Federal Drug Control Service Aleksandr Yakushev, Timofey Sokolov, Aleksandr Vasilyev, Vasily Markin, Mikhail Kushnir, former police officer of the Siberian Federal District Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior Aleksey Bornikov, as well as residents of Novosibirsk Ilkhomzhon Shomirsaidov and Dmitry Kornev. Depending on the role of each one, they were found guilty of crimes under Part 1 of Article 222, Parts 1 and 3 of Article 228, Part 1 of Article 30, Part 5 of Article 33, Part 5 of Article 228.1, Part 3 of Article 285, Part 1, item “c” of Article 286, Part 3 of Article 33, Part 3, item “c” of Article 286 of the RF Penal Code (illegal storage of ammunition; illegal storage of narcotics on a large scale without intention to sell; plotting illegal drug trafficking by a group of people on a very large scale; complicity in illegal purchase of drugs without intention to sell on a very large scale; abuse of office; illegal drug trafficking without intention to sell on a very large scale; solicitation to abuse power; abuse of power).

The court and investigators have revealed that on 10 October 2013, the operative agents of the Novosibirsk Region branch of the Federal Drug Control Service Yakushev, Sokolov, Vasilyev, Markin, Kushnir and police officer Bornikov organize a supply of heroin to the Russian Federation from Tajikistan in bags of vegetables. In addition, on 10 October 2013, in order to have the wrong man prosecuted for the crime, Kushnir, Markin, Vasilyev with the help of Sokolov made documents with false information in them stating that they had found bags of drugs in the man’s car.

The court has sentenced Shomirsaidov to 14 years in a maximum-security correctional facility and a fine of 500,000 rubles, Yakushev to 5 years in a minimum-security correctional facility. Bornikov, Kornev and two other former officials of the drug service Vasilyev and Kushnir got between 7 and 13 years in a maximum-security correctional facility and a fine of 400,000 rubles each. Two more former drug service officers Sokolov and Markin got a suspended sentence of 4 years plus 2 years of probation.