Russia seizes US$150M cocaine haul hidden in banana shipment
Russia said Wednesday it had seized 820 kilograms (1,800 pounds) of cocaine hidden under a shipment of bananas, calling it its largest bust of drugs from Latin America this year.
Cocaine smuggling into Russia has surged over the past two years, according to Russia's Izvestia newspaper.
Drug traffickers are increasingly looking to the country as a transit hub, in part because the Ukrainian port of Odesa has become inaccessible due to Russia's offensive, the paper said.
Russia's customs service, working jointly with the FSB security service, said it had uncovered a batch worth 'more than 12 billion rubles (US$153 million)' stashed in banana containers.
The cocaine packages -- disguised in briquettes bearing the label of a French luxury fashion brand -- were discovered in a 'hidden cavity' under the bananas, it added.
It carried out the bust after a tip-off from 'foreign colleagues about the intention of a South American criminal group to organise a smuggling channel for cocaine supplies to Russia'.
It said an investigation had been opened into large-scale drug trafficking, a charge that in Russia carries maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
Russia has a zero-tolerance policy towards drug use and smuggling, handing heavy sentences to those convicted of trafficking small amounts of narcotics -- including foreigners.
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U.S. House committee issues subpoenas for Epstein files, depositions with Clintons and other officials
WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Justice Department on Tuesday for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to U.S. President Donald Trump and other former top officials. The Republican-controlled committee also issued subpoenas for depositions with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials. The committee's actions showed how even with lawmakers away from Washington on a monthlong break, interest in the Epstein files is still running high. Trump has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department's decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation, but lawmakers from both major political parties, as well as many in the Republican president's political base, have refused to let it go. Since Epstein's 2019 death in a New York jail cell as he awaited trial for sex trafficking charges, conservative conspiracists have stoked theories about what information investigators gathered on Epstein — and who else could have been involved. Republican lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee nodded to that line of questioning last month by initiating the subpoenas for the Clintons, both Democrats, as well as demanding all communications between President Joe Biden's Democratic administration and the Justice Department regarding Epstein.
