Customs detain a man with a hashish stash in Bender's Solnechny
Transnistrian customs officers detained a man near the state border in Bender's Solnechny neighbourhood carrying a stash package that experts confirmed held hashish, which he said he bought through an online platform in Moldova. A criminal case was opened for drug smuggling, the man was placed under arrest and he faces three to seven years in prison.
Customs officers of Transnistria’s State Customs Committee detained a man near
the republic’s state border, in Bender’s Solnechny neighbourhood.[1]The
customs committee’s press service said the man was carrying a drug stash, known
locally as a zakladka, that he had just picked up.[1]During questioning he
said he had bought the substance, which he said was hashish, through an online
platform in Moldova.[1]
An investigation team went to the scene, and the man’s phone held records of an
order on an internet site that distributes narcotics and the coordinates of the
stash.[1]Investigators seized the package and sent it for expert examination,
which confirmed it contained hashish.[1]A criminal case was opened under part
1 of article 185-1 of Transnistria’s Criminal Code, covering smuggling of
narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues.[1]The man is
under arrest and faces three to seven years in prison.[1]
Case data
Every number and detail the sources state, with the sources that state it.
No weight or quantity was published for the hashish, and the article does not say whether the package held one wrap or several, so no cannabis weight is recorded.
The article gives no separate date for the detention; 17 February 2026 is its publication date and is used as the incident date.
The man was not named, and neither his age, citizenship nor residence was published.
No charge sheet, court decision or sentence was reported; three to seven years is the penalty the smuggling charge could carry, not a penalty imposed.
The article does not say in which direction the man was crossing, or whether the package had been brought across the border or collected inside Transnistria.
Only one accessible account of the event was found after searching in Russian; the customs committee's own website and Telegram channel did not carry the case in the pages opened.
Criminal-investigation officers in Tiraspol detained a 20-year-old man suspected of unlawfully storing drugs after finding a ziplock packet with a brown mass resembling hashish in his jeans pocket. The substance was sent for chemical-biological examination during a pre-investigation check, with up to three years' imprisonment cited as possible criminal liability.
Police in central Bender detained a 19-year-old local resident carrying about 10 grams of plant material thought to be hashish, and found three more packets of about 10 grams each at his home. The seized material was sent for biological examination, and if confirmed as a drug he could face a fine of up to 21,000 Transnistrian roubles or up to three years in prison.
Police detained a 19-year-old Bender resident in Kitskany forest after finding hashish on him, which officers seized. He faces a fine of up to 6,300 Transnistrian roubles or up to 30 days of administrative arrest, with an administrative case under consideration.
Criminal-investigation officers of Transnistria's capital militia detained a 42-year-old Sukleya resident who carried a fold of suspected marijuana in his shorts pocket and was under the influence of drugs. He first said he found it on a walk, then that he picked the plant in a nearby field, and an examination will decide whether he faces up to three years in prison or an administrative penalty.