Overview
- A Moscow-region court sentenced Jugal Daterao to two years and six months in a penal colony and fined him 30,000 rubles in a ruling reported on May 29.
- Russian customs detained Daterao in January at Sheremetyevo Airport after officers found THC-infused gummy candies in his checked luggage during a routine inspection.
- In court Daterao said the gummies were legally prescribed in the United States to manage effects of prior brain surgery, a claim the judge rejected.
- Reporting identifies him as an Indian-origin manager at The Walt Disney Company based in New York/New Jersey but his U.S. citizenship status is unclear and Disney and U.S. officials have offered limited public comment.
- Prosecutors had sought about six and a half years but the court imposed a shorter term reportedly because of his guilty plea, underscoring that Russian law treats possession and transport of narcotics as criminal offenses that can carry penal-colony sentences.