Berlin:
A 38-year-old German man has been arrested at St. Petersburg Airport in Russia after edible cannabis gummies were found in his luggage, the German Foreign Ministry confirmed on Wednesday.
“I can confirm that we are aware of the case and that it involves a German citizen,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner said after Russian customs reported the incident on Tuesday.
The government is in contact with the man's lawyers, Wagner said.
Under Russian drug law, he could face up to seven years in prison.
The man was carrying a plastic bag with the inscription “Fink Green Goldbears” and the image of a cannabis leaf, Russian customs said. The bag contained six candies weighing approximately 20 grams.
Tests showed they contained tetrahydrocannabinol – “a narcotic and therefore… banned from being transported across the border,” Russian authorities said.
The man had arrived from Hamburg via Istanbul and planned to meet a woman he met online and travel through Russia, they said.
“The passenger explained that he had purchased ten candies containing marijuana at the end of last year at a specialty store in his home country,” customs officials said.
He liked to use the sweets on long flights “for a good night's sleep,” he reportedly said.
Western countries have accused Russia of arresting their citizens to use them in negotiations to secure the release of Russian spies held abroad.
In February 2022, American basketball star Brittney Griner was arrested at a Moscow airport for possessing vape cartridges containing a small amount of cannabis oil.
Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison, but was released as part of a prisoner swap between the US and Russia.
In his interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson last week, President Vladimir Putin raised the case of Vadim Krasikov, a Russian prisoner serving a life sentence in Germany.
Without mentioning him by name, Putin referred to Krasikov in the context of negotiations over a deal to release Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.
Krasikov was jailed last year for the 2019 killing of separatist commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in a Berlin park on the orders of Russian intelligence services, according to German authorities.
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