The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), and the Ukrainian Navy have dismantled a Black Sea smuggling channel supplying weapons and Russian drones during a special operation that lasted over a year.
“During operational work, a maritime smuggling route through the Black Sea was documented. The suspects used civilian vessels to transport large consignments of tobacco products, concealing weapons and Russian-made unmanned systems among the cargo,” the HUR reported on Telegram.
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The SBU said the operation helped prevent a potential terrorist attack in Odesa.
“Smugglers were detained who, at the request of the Federal Security Service (FSB), were to deliver weapons to the port city, including a fiber-optically controlled strike unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with explosives,” the statement said.
According to case materials, the weapons were hidden among a wholesale shipment of tobacco products smuggled across the Black Sea from Russian-occupied Abkhazia.
The route ran toward neutral waters near Zmiinyi Island, where cargo was transferred from a main vessel to smaller boats for covert delivery to the Odesa coast.
SBU officers documented each stage of the operation and detained four suspects “red-handed” while unloading excisable goods together with weapons in the Odesa port area.
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Investigators say the organizer of the scheme is an Odesa-based businessman currently abroad who is involved in illegal trade in occupied Abkhazia.
In exchange for permission to operate in the Caucasus, he allegedly agreed to cooperate with the FSB and, at its request, arranged the delivery of a strike drone to Odesa.
He involved three Odesa businessmen and a local border guard who was to ensure the vessels’ unhindered passage to the port. The group also planned, on the return trip, to evacuate the organizer’s brother from Ukraine by sea.
The detainees have been charged under Part 2 of Article 332 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (illegal smuggling of persons across the state border).
Authorities are considering additional charges related to weapons and excisable goods smuggling, as well as further notices of suspicion for other participants.
An in absentia notice of suspicion is being prepared for the organizer. The suspects face up to 12 years in prison with asset confiscation.
According to the HUR, searches in Odesa and Chernivtsi regions led to the seizure of:
- 1,800 boxes of counterfeit tobacco products
- communication equipment and documents
- illegally modified automatic weapons
- a Russian UAV with an explosive payload hidden in cargo
Investigative actions are ongoing, officials said.
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