SSU thwarted attempt to deliver drone loaded with explosives to Odesa for terrorist attack. PHOTOS
Ukraine's security services have uncovered an FSB smuggling route through which an attack drone intended for terrorist attacks was being transported to Odesa.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by the SSU press center.
Scheme for delivering weapons by sea
According to the investigation, the suspects planned to smuggle weapons into Odesa, including a strike drone equipped with explosives and fiber-optic controls. To conceal it, the drone was hidden among a shipment of tobacco products being illegally transported across the Black Sea from the temporarily occupied Abkhazia.
The smugglers used a complex route through neutral waters near Zmiinyi Island. There, they planned to transfer the cargo from the main vessel to small boats to secretly deliver it to the coast of the Odesa region.
Caught red-handed
SSU officers systematically documented the group’s activities and detained four individuals while they were attempting to deliver the cargo to the Odesa port area. Weapons were discovered alongside the excise goods.
The investigation has established that the organizer of the channel is an Odesa businessman who is currently abroad and runs an illegal business in the temporarily occupied Abkhazia. According to the SSU, in exchange for "permission" to smuggle goods, he agreed to cooperate with the FSB of the Russian Federation and recruited three Odessa residents and a local border guard into the scheme.
It was also established that the participants in the scheme planned to smuggle the organizer’s brother out of Ukraine by sea on the return trip.
Charges and potential sentences
The detainees have been notified of charges under Part 2 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine). Additional charges regarding the smuggling of weapons and excise goods are also being prepared. The organizer of the scheme is to be notified of the charges in absentia. The suspects face up to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property.
