Man gets 11 years prison after drugs raid

A man found to be in possession of 100 kilograms of hashish last year in an Estonian village has received a stiff sentence of 11 years of real prison time for possession with intent to distribute and trafficking, Public Broadcasting reports.

Nikolai Šmeljov was convicted of possession and illegal import of a narcotic/psychotropic substance. He was arrested July 16, 2013 when his BMW was stopped in an Ida-Viru County village on the E264 on the way to northeastern Estonia.

The sentence was handed down on Friday and reported today in the dailies.

The total weight of the drugs found in the car was 107.5 kilograms of hashish, procured from Spain and brought into Estonia by way of Latvia, Postimees reported.

Other noteworthy 11-year prison sentences in the past few years include the one given to Kaur Hanson in Estonia's most high-profile child rape case, as well as in another case involving the rape of an elderly woman. 

Elsewhere, State Police confiscated 400 grams of amphetamine from two drug dealers in Jurmala, Latvia last week, LETA reports.

Following a lead, the Jurmala Police Criminal Investigation Department in collaboration with the State Police Special Task Battalion officers found a total of 400 grams of amphetamine during a search in an apartment in Jurmala. Such quantity of amphetamine costs about 6,000 euros on the black market.

Two men, born in 1972 and 1976, were arrested on suspicion of selling drugs.