Bali court hands Ukrainian man life sentence for illegal drugs laboratory | Drugs News

Authorities say Russians and Ukrainians are collaborating to type crime rings on Indonesia’s most well-known vacation island.

An Indonesian court docket has sentenced a Ukrainian man to life in jail for his position in a large-scale Russian-Ukrainian drug ring working on the vacationer island of Bali.

Thai authorities arrested Roman Nazarenko, who was listed as a fugitive by Interpol, at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport in December as he tried to flee to Dubai, then extradited him to Indonesia.

Nazarenko had spent seven months on the run after police raided a vacation villa in Bali in Could 2024, discovering a laboratory within the basement used to develop marijuana and produce a precursor of the artificial drug ecstasy.

Throughout Nazarenko’s trial at Denpasar District Court docket on Thursday, prosecutors argued he was one of many masterminds of a drug ring.

The Ukrainian claimed he was tricked into becoming a member of the ring and sat silently because the panel of three judges handed down a life sentence.

“There isn’t any motive to forgive or justify the defendant; he deserves to be punished commensurate with what he has carried out,” presiding Decide Eni Martiningrum stated.

“His crime may injury the psychological state of the younger era.”

Marthinus Hukom, the top of Indonesia’s Nationwide Narcotics Company, stated there’s a rising problem of Russians and Ukrainians collaborating in crime rings on Indonesia’s most well-known vacation island.

“This can be a very distinctive phenomenon,” Hukom stated.

“Two nations which are at struggle, however right here in Bali, their residents are companions in crime, partaking in illicit drug trafficking.”

Authorities additionally arrested two Ukrainian brothers, Mykyta Volovod and Ivan Volovod, and a Russian man, Konstantin Krutz, throughout the earlier raid on the villa. The identical court docket sentenced every of the boys to twenty years in jail.

Prosecutors argued that the Volovod brothers have been the drug producers, whereas Krutz bought their product.

Prosecutors have additionally recognized a Russian man, Oleg Tkachuck, who they consider to be the drug ring’s general mastermind. He stays at massive.

In response to the Volovod brothers, Tkachuck paid them $30,000 in September 2023 to put in gear on the villa to supply hydroponic marijuana and mephedrone – used within the manufacturing of ecstasy drugs.

In response to prosecutors, Nazarenko recruited the opposite convicted males for Tkachuck, in addition to supplied gear and marijuana seeds, and oversaw operations of the lab.

Nazarenko argued in court docket that he had been tricked by Tkachuck and expressed regret for his position within the drug operation.

Indonesia has a few of the strictest drug legal guidelines within the area, with drug smugglers generally executed by firing squad.

Bali, in the meantime, has develop into a magnet for hundreds of individuals from Russia and Ukraine fleeing the horrors of struggle since President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Russian guests, particularly, greater than tripled between 2022 and 2024 – rising from 57,860 to 180,215 final yr.