Police in Yakutia tracked four alleged drug dealers aged 22 to 33 before mounting detention operations.[1] When the suspects drove along Larionova Street in Yakutsk, officers tried to stop their car.[1] The suspects ignored the officers’ demands and drove off.[1] During the resulting pursuit, two of the fugitives jumped out of the car and fled.[1] Officers detained the other two during the pursuit with SOBR force support from the regional Rosgvardiya.[1] The republic’s drug-control directorate and the FSB jointly detained the group of alleged dealers aged 22 to 33.[2]

A search of the two detained men found 227 packets of hashish weighing about 1 kg.[1] Police also seized a traumatic pistol and a knuckleduster from the pair.[1] Police later published a wanted notice for the two men who had fled.[1] After seeing the notice, the two fugitives surrendered and handed over a bundle of the same drug weighing about 400 grams.[1] The two seizures together amounted to about 1.4 kg of hashish with a non-lethal pistol and a knuckleduster.[2]

Investigators say the group worked for a shadow online shop, selling banned substances in Yakutsk through dead-drop caches.[1] They collected the sale goods from hidden stashes whose locations were shared by an unidentified handler.[1] The four became suspects in a criminal case opened by the republic interior ministry’s investigators under the attempted large-scale sale provision.[3] A court remanded two of the men in custody and released the other two on travel restrictions.[2] The investigation into the group was still continuing.[1]