Lebanese man sentenced to 16 years in Russian cocaine-smuggling case

The St Petersburg City Court sentenced Lebanese citizen Joseph Adchiti to 16 years in a strict-regime penal colony in a case involving the smuggling of more than 89 kilograms of cocaine, prosecutors and the city’s courts press service said.

According to the court’s findings, Adchiti and accomplices arranged for the drug to reach St Petersburg from Ecuador in banana containers in March 2015. The shipment was then intended to travel through Georgia to Turkey for sale.

The group’s activities were stopped in 2015. Accomplices were convicted in 2018, while Adchiti left Russia after their detention, the Prosecutor General’s Office said.

The courts press service said Adchiti denied guilt. He told the court he had inspected the goods because he and his family had been threatened.

Peruvian authorities later extradited Adchiti to Russia at prosecutors’ request. His case was heard separately from those of the previously convicted accomplices.