The St. Petersburg City Court announced the verdict to Ukrainian citizen Alexander Tsepelev and Alexander Pankratiev, whose citizenship was not specified, in the case of illegal drug trafficking on a particularly large scale (clause d of part 4 of article 228.1, part 5 of article 228.1 of the Criminal Code). Tsepelev was also found guilty of financing extremism (Part 1 of Article 282.3 of the Criminal Code), the press service of the St. Petersburg courts reports.
The court sentenced Tsepelev to 16 years in a maximum security colony, and the previously convicted Pankratiev — 17 years in a maximum security colony. The press service of the courts noted that in the judicial history of St. Petersburg this was the first verdict under the article on financing extremist activities.
According to the court, Tsepelev and Pankratiev prepared mephedrone in an apartment in the north of St. Petersburg, and the money was from the sale of drugs Tsepelev donated to the needs of the Ukrainian organization Right Sector, which the Supreme Court of Russia declared extremist.
Between November 2021 and March 2022, the men produced 851.45 grams of mephedrone and 21,916.6 grams of liquid containing mephedrone. They later sold 3.35 grams of the drug and stored the rest in the same apartment. Tsepelev from November 2021 to February 24, 2022 transferred to “Citizen K.” million rubles “for the purpose of material support for the activities” of the “Right Sector”.
“Citizen K.”, according to the investigation, was supposed to transfer money to the “Right Sector”, “whose active participants were persons under the call signs " Adjutant», «Saboteur», «Chemist», «Spider». The main witness for the prosecution was a man whom the courts' press service calls «the political head of one of the branches of the Right Sector.» under the call sign “Roman Chirka.”
During the trial, Pankratiev denied his involvement in drugs, and Tsepelev insisted that he was doing this under threat, but by the end of the trial, both admitted guilt in full. “In his testimony, Tsepelev said that he financed the activities of the Right Sector. on the territory of Russia, since the turnover in the Russian Federation is greater,” the press service reported.