The drug trade is flourishing in Siberia – but the state is fighting the scene rather half-heartedly.
The “Palace of Weddings” is a light blue Art Nouveau villa on Lenin Prospect, the central street of Tomsk. Even today he spits out rows of neat wedding parties, the newly wed couples are young and slim, their eyes shine with optimism. But only a few doors down the Lenin Prospect becomes ugly. Someone sprayed jet black letters on the wall: “KR MEF SK. cheese24… “(The website is known to the editors.)
Such graffiti can be found on many walls in Tomsk, advertising a website that sells drugs. “Jerry Service” is the name of the homepage, where Tom and Jerry pose over a short, very clear text: “Welcome. We deliver pure quality goods! Alpha-pvp and mephedrone “. Interested parties will be forwarded to telegram channels and chats.
KR means crack, i.e. cocaine, MEF mephedrone and SK salt, like Alpha-pvp synthetic drugs, known in Germany under names like Flakka or Crystal Meth. Their effects on psyche and health are considered devastating.
“A friend at school got stoned with such a synthetic drug mixture,” says Vyacheslav Tretyakov. “He cried and said he was crossing the street, glowing walls of Lawa were coming towards him from left and right, it was getting closer and closer.” The addict was 13 years old.
Vyacheslav Tretyakov is a communist, leader of the Tomsk youth party. He and his Komsomolians go through the streets once a week to paint over drug graffiti with white paint. “At the moment there are fewer, apparently the city administration is also trying harder to remove them.” But in September, at the beginning of the semester, when 80,000 students gathered in the university town, the walls of the house were teeming with soot-black cheese advertisements, including the upper one Lenin Prospect, where most of the institutes and dormitories are located.
According to the Russian Statistics Bureau, 7,316 people died of drugs in Russia last year, only a tenth of the number of victims in the United States. But drugs are also part of everyday life in the Russian provinces. 600,000 drug addicts are officially registered in the country, but according to a study by the Treswaya Rossiya project, five million Russians depend on drugs.
A drug labyrinth opens up behind “Cheese24”. The “Jerry Service” reported on a Telegram channel that a new “Mef” was available in Tomsk, two grams at a price of 4200 rubles, the equivalent of a good 51 euros. In Anhero-Sudschensk and Jurga, cities with 80,000 souls in the neighboring region of Kemerovo, KRB or “White Chinese” is offered at just under 30 euros a gram. The channel organizes competitions, such as a competition for customer photos in the best Halloween costumes. Someone is happy about their winnings, a gram of “salt”, someone thanks them “wholeheartedly” for the delivery and quality of the goods.
You can also apply for jobs at Jerry via Telegram, at monthly wages from “60 K”, ie 60,000 rubles, the equivalent of a good 730 euros. “There are ‘graffiti'”, explains Tretyakov. “They spray the advertisements at night. And there are ‘Sakladschtschiki’ who deposit the drugs in a hiding place and send the geolocation to the customer via smartphone. “
According to the “RIA Tomsk” portal, which is close to the authorities, “the competent organs” quickly arrest the Sakladschtschiki. And every year around 150 people in the Tomsk region are put behind bars for drug trafficking, usually for several years.
Nevertheless, there is something weird about the fight against drug crime: Dmitry Sharpilo was sentenced to seven years in prison by a Tomsk court last August for drug trafficking on the Internet. But the then 21-year-old had dealt from a computer room in Tomsk penal institution IK-4. According to a report by the prisoner rights group “gulagu.net”, the prisoner sold spice and other synthetic drugs for the equivalent of 19,000 euros a month. Under the control of prison director Alexander Sorins and other law enforcement officers. “They took boys who were dealers, gave them cell phones and notebooks, and forced them to earn money for them now,” says Vladimir Ossetschkin, head of “gulagu.net”
Sorin was apparently covered by Valery Boyarinev, deputy chief of the Russian law enforcement agency. The Tomsk prison officials had Sharpilo brutally beaten several times in order to force him to remain silent. Sorin himself was seriously injured in a suicide attempt in May – according to “gulagu.net” – and Boyarinev is still in office. “The investigation was declared secret,” said Ossetschkin. It is unclear whether the IK-4 will continue to be dealt. Ossetschkin and Tretyakov suspect that synthetic drugs were also manufactured in the penal colony.
But “Cheese24” continues to be dealt. On some days the site is blocked by the authorities, but can then be reopened without a VPN. The Roskomnadzor censorship authority is more consistently eliminating opposition political portals. Communist Tretyakov also fears that the authorities and security organs are not waging a serious fight against the drug traffickers. “Surveillance cameras hang everywhere on Kirov Prospect. It would be easy to get hold of the sprayers if the authorities had the will. “
