Russia sentences US teacher for Cannabis Smuggling

Russia has sentences a former US diplomat and teacher to fourteen years in prison for a “huge-scale” cannabis smuggling. Marc Fogel had formerly labored at the US embassy in Moscow. However, he was employed as an English instructor withinside the town at the time of his arrest. Fogel was sentenced withinside the identical jurisdiction as the hearing of a marijuana-associated case against US basketball star Brittney Griner.
Cannabis is legal in lots of parts of the US. However, it stays illegal in Russia. “American citizen Fogel has been found guilty,” a courtroom docket within side the Moscow suburb of Khimki stated in a statement. The press release stated that the US teacher had committed a “huge-scale drugs smuggling” along with a “huge-scale unlawful possession of drugs without a business purpose”. Fogel, who’s in his 60s, had around 17g (0.6oz) of cannabis in his bags whilst he was stuck on 15 August 2021 at Sheremetyevo airport, he instructed lawyers.

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The local government has not commented on the amount of cannabis drugs Fogel was carrying yet. However Russian regulation defines a “huge amount” of marijuana to be as a minimum of 100g. He pleaded guilty to smuggling, storing, transporting, producing, and processing narcotic drugs. This changed his sentence to serving his jail term at a safety penal colony.
As a part of the investigation, police launched photos of searches conducted with the aid of investigators on the Anglo-American School in Moscow, in which Fogel used to work. His sentencing comes days after the Khimki court was not on time for the trial once more for Ms. Griner. The Phoenix Mercury star was detain last February for allegedly carrying cannabis oil into the country.
Russia has extended the US basketball star’s detention again. Several US residents are presently in Russian jails, such as former US marine Paul Whelan, who was sentence in 2020 to serve sixteen years for espionage. The US additionally has numerous Russian residents in jail. In April, the 2 nations agree to a prisoner exchange wherein a former US Marine change into a prisoner exchange for a Russian pilot who was jail in 2010.