MOSCOW, May 7 (RAPSI) – Five members of a criminal gang were sentenced to long prison sentences ranging between 18 and 22 years for smuggling synthetic drugs from China to Russia, RAPSI learnt on Thursday in the Moscow Region Court.

The court also fined them 700,000 to one million rubles each.

In 2011-2012, the ring, headed by Arseny Vokhrin, smuggled large amounts of synthetic drugs from China to Russia and sold them here. They hid the drugs inside appliances that were eventually distributed to other Russian regions by a Moscow-based express delivery service.

In March 2012 Federal Security Service (FSB) officers searched the homes of the suspects, their cars and warehouses. In all, the search yielded over 12.8 kilograms of drugs.