Overview
- Defendant Oksana Zubareva faces a charge of attempted trafficking on an especially large scale under Russian law.
- Prosecutors allege she hired the captain and 12 sailors for the Panama-flagged Eser in 2018, directed the route, and arranged the open-sea loading of 260 bales totaling nearly nine tons of cocaine.
- A regional drug-control witness said she oversaw crew departures to Latin America, translated at key meetings, and pressured the captain to keep the ship at sea for the pickup, including threats against him and his family.
- The witness also testified that she paid nearly a month of hotel stays for two foreigners, including a Spaniard previously convicted in a cocaine case, and that both left Russia after the Eser was seized.
- Zubareva told the court she only helped her husband with translations and contracts and denied any cartel link, with the case connected to 2020 Cabo Verde convictions of 11 Russian sailors and their captain over 8.7 tons.