Russia names convict a drug dealer under the assumption that the GRU
Russia has the right to extradite its citizen suspected of working for foreign intelligence services. Authorities said he was a major drug dealer. Most likely, the request was sent to kill fled upon arrival in Moscow. They write about it in their investigated group bellingcat and insider.
In the past, the Dutch authorities expelled Victor Muller Ferreira, who came to Brazil for an internship at the International Criminal Court. Dutch intelligence agencies have established that the Brazilian is in fact a Russian citizen working for military intelligence. In Brazil, he was convicted for using false documents. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
In July 2018, in the Russian Federation by the Brazilian government, the person convicted for using false documents was actually Russian Sergey Cherkasov. According to government statistics, Cherkasov was a drug trafficker consuming heroin from Afghanistan. The Russian admitted this and requested deportation to his homeland.
In the court materials attached to the extradition request, Cherkasov’s name would have been inserted after the trial, the investigators say. The criminal case in which he was named the defendant really exists, but the lawyers of other participants in the smuggling schemes did not remember that Cherkasov was mentioned in the case.
Government allegations contained in extradition documents, evidence that the authorities involved Cherkasov in an existing decade-old criminal prosecution that targeted real drug dealers.
In addition, the materials state that Cherkasov is on the wanted list. However, The Insider was unable to locate him in any wanted criminal databases prior to being apprehended in Brazil. And he himself has flown to the country at least 5 times since 2015.