Uncompensated Drug Mule Reported Dealers to Cops

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Penza, a city in Penza Oblast, Russia, police arrested two drug crime suspects who sold drugs online and operated a drug distribution operation. The men, a 23-year-old and a 24-year-old, sold amphetamine online until June 13. This follows an ongoing investigation into stimulant and cannabinoid smugglers in the region.

The men, authorities wrote in the press release, rented an apartment in the region and used the apartment to package various substances. Police found several types of drugs at the apartment, totalling more than one kilogram. The majority of the packages contained substituted cathinones or amphetamines, but related arrests revealed that the distributors also shipped cocaine on occasion.

In April, law enforcement in Penza arrested eight intermediary traffickers or so-called “mules.” All eight were between the ages of 20 and 25. They all performed minor roles in the organization—and some only knew their role in connection to the immediately relevant contact. Only one knew more than that. And police caught him in the act of picking up a significant amount of drugs from the supplier.

He then dropped off the drugs to other traffickers or mules who repeated the process. Other dealers received the packages. The bigger recipients redistributed the drugs online or to other distributors in nearby regions. The smaller recipients sold the drugs throughout the Penza region.

Many of the drug runners operated to or from other areas nearby. One of these traffickers explained, to the police, that he was promised payment after he delivered a certain number of packages. And after 80 packages, the distributors that he worked for still neglected to pay him and potentially other drug runners too. He went to the police.

Police obtained a search warrant and raided the apartment of the 23-year-old and the 24-year-old. Inside the apartment, authorities found well over one kilogram of drugs that had not been packaged for shipment and/or delivery and 30 packages of drugs were already prepared. Both suspects prepared the drugs for distribution at the apartment.

Upon discovery of the apartment and drugs, police officers arrested both men for the “Illegal purchase, storage, transportation, manufacturing, or processing for the purpose of selling of narcotics, psychotropic substances or their analogues in a significant amount.” They are now in custody and police continue the investigation, now with the suspect’s cell phones and other compromising material.