Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in the latest edition:
Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Smuggling of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors or analogues, plants containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, or their parts containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, tools or equipment under special control and used for the manufacture narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances
1. Illegal movement across the customs border of the Customs Union within the EurAsEC or the State border of the Russian Federation with member states of the Customs Union within the EurAsEC of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors or analogues, plants containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, or their parts containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, instruments or equipment that are under special control and used for the manufacture of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances -
shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of three to seven years with or without a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to five years, and with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to one year.
2. The same act committed:
a) by a group of persons by prior conspiracy;
b) by an official using his official position;
c) in relation to narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues, plants containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, or their parts containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, in a significant amount -
shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of five to ten years with or without a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to five years, and with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to one and a half years.
3. Acts provided for in parts one or two of this article, committed in relation to narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors or analogues, plants containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, or their parts containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, in large quantities, -
shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of ten to twenty years with or without a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to five years, and with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years.
4. Acts provided for in parts one, two or three of this article, committed:
a) an organized group;
b) in relation to narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors or analogues, plants containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, or their parts containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, in an especially large amount;
c) with the use of violence against a person exercising customs or border control -
shall be punishable by imprisonment for a term of fifteen to twenty years with or without a fine in the amount of up to one million rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to five years and with or without restriction of freedom for a term of up to two years or with life imprisonment freedom.
Notes. Lost power. — Federal Law dated March 1, 2012 N 18-FZ.
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Comments on Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
Public danger provided for in Art. 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is that as a result of committing a crime, in violation of customs control, items prohibited for sale are imported or exported from one state to another.
The object of the crime is public health.
The subject of the crime is:
1) narcotic drugs; 2) psychotropic substances; 3) precursors included in List I and Table I of List IV of the List of Narcotic Drugs, Psychotropic Substances and Their Precursors Subject to Control in the Russian Federation, approved by the Government of the Russian Federation; 4) analogues of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances; 5) plants containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors, or their parts containing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their precursors; 6) instruments or equipment that are under special control and used for the manufacture of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances.
The concept of these items is given in relation to Art. Art. 228, 228.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Precursors must be included in tables I and II of list IV of the List of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors subject to control in the Russian Federation, approved. Government of the Russian Federation.
The objective side of the crime is expressed in the illegal movement of the subject of the crime across the customs border of the Customs Union within the EurAsEC or the State border of the Russian Federation with member states of the Customs Union within the EurAsEC.
The terms used in Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “customs border of the Customs Union within the framework of the EurAsEC” (“customs border of the Customs Union”), “State border of the Russian Federation with the member states of the Customs Union within the framework of the EurAsEC” should be understood, respectively, “customs border of the Eurasian Economic Union “,” “The state border of the Russian Federation with the member states of the Eurasian Economic Union” (clause 1 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated April 27, 2017 N 12 “On judicial practice in cases of smuggling”).
The movement of goods and other items across the customs border or state border consists of carrying out actions to import, respectively, into the customs territory of the Union or the territory of the Russian Federation or export from these territories of goods or other items in any way (clause 5 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated April 27, 2017 N 12).
The illegal movement of goods or other items across the customs border, as stated in paragraph 5 of Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated April 27, 2017 N 12, should be understood as the movement of goods or other items:
- outside established places or during unspecified working hours of customs authorities in these places;
- or with concealment of goods from customs control;
- or with false declaration or non-declaration of goods;
- or using documents containing false information about goods or other items and (or) using counterfeit means of identification or those related to other goods or other items.
Criminal liability for the illegal movement of narcotic drugs, substances, precursors, analogues, plants and their parts under Part 1 of Art. 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation occurs regardless of their size .
If a person, along with the illegal movement across the customs border or across the state border of the items listed in Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, commits an intentional unlawful act related to the illegal trafficking of these items, including their transportation, then the act is subject to qualification under the totality of crimes provided for in the article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the corresponding articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (in particular, articles 228, 228.1, 228.2, 228.3, 228.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) (clause 12 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated April 27, 2017 N 12).
The subjective side of the crime is characterized by guilt in the form of direct intent . The person realizes that he is illegally moving a contraband item across the customs border of the Customs Union or the State Border of the Russian Federation using the specified methods, and desires this.
The subject of the crime provided for in Part 1 of Art. 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation - an individual who has reached the age of 16.
The special subject of the crime is an official (clause “b”, part 2, article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
Corpus delicti
The structure of the offense is of a material nature. Criminal liability for smuggling of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances is provided after the illegal goods have been transported across the border zone.
Psychotropic substances can be transported in completely different ways, for example, through secret pockets in a suitcase or bag, various objects, or even in the body of a person or animal. For the law, the method of transportation does not matter, only the presence of direct intent is important.
Important! Persons over 16 years of age are held liable.
When an act is considered a crime
In order for an offense to fall under Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, it is necessary that the attacker manages to pass through checks at the border and bring prohibited goods into the country. If this condition is not met and he is caught at the time of the search, such an act will be considered at the stage of completion and a different measure of responsibility will be imposed for it.
There are cases when criminals resort to other methods of movement, such as false declarations, to commit smuggling. In such circumstances, smuggling will be considered as a completed act only after these false documents authorizing the passage of the illegal goods through the border point are handed over to the customs authority.
Objective side
The fact of transporting prohibited powders, plants, and devices for their creation through the border zone is considered a crime. The method of movement does not matter.
The object of the crime is the health of citizens of the Russian Federation and foreigners, the level of public morality and order in the country.
Subjective side
The subjective side of the offense consists in the presence of deliberate malicious intent on the part of the suspect. This means that the investigation will have to identify and prove his selfish intentions during the case.
The subject of the crime must be a sane person who has reached the age of 16.
Possible problems in the evidential part
Most often, the investigation faces problems in the evidentiary part regarding smuggling by mail. So, for example, the concepts of “shipment” and “smuggling” may not be considered as equivalent. To solve such offenses, one should be guided by the definition from the Customs Code.
There may also be a problem in applying the provisions of the institution of complicity. The actions of the recipient cannot always be correlated with the actions of the sender; prior conspiracy requires proof.
Part 2 Art. 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
The qualifying criteria (Part 2 of Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) are:
- commission of smuggling by a group of persons by prior conspiracy (clause “a”) (see comments to Article 35 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation);
- commission of smuggling by an official using his official position (clause “b”). This may be an official who uses his official position to commit a crime, and the performance of his labor functions is not necessarily related to work in customs authorities or in border troops (see also the note to Article 285 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, comments to Article 226.1 of the Criminal Code RF);
- in a significant amount (item “c”). Significant, as well as large and especially large sizes of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances, narcotic plants for the purposes of this article are determined on the basis of Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation of October 1, 2012 N 1002 “On approval of significant, large and especially large sizes of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances , as well as significant, large and especially large sizes for plants containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, or their parts containing narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances, for the purposes of Articles 228, 228.1, 229 and 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.”
For example, for the narcotic substance “heroin” the sizes are respectively:
- significant size - over 0.5 g;
- large size - over 2.5 g;
- especially large size - over 1,000 g.
For the psychotropic substance “amphetamine” the dimensions are respectively:
- significant size - over 0.2 g;
- large size - over 1 g;
- especially large size - over 200 g.
What is smuggling
Article 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation contains the following list of prohibited items:
- Psychotropic and narcotic substances, their analogues and precursors.
- Plants, which may contain substances from the first point, or parts of these plants.
- Equipment used for the manufacture of prohibited substances.
The Criminal Code of the Russian Federation understands drug smuggling as the illegal transfer of specified substances and objects through a border checkpoint.
What punishment does the convicted person face?
Criminal penalties for drug smuggling vary; their application depends on the qualifying features of the offense. In general, they are divided into the following types:
- In case of unauthorized movement of prohibited substances, precursors, plants that may contain prohibited substances, tools for their creation, the convicted person receives a prison sentence of 3-7 years with or without restriction of freedom of movement to one year.
- Transportation of prohibited substances, organized by a group of persons or an employee taking advantage of his official position, or passage through customs with a particularly large amount of a prohibited substance is punishable by a prison term of 5 to 10 years with or without restriction of freedom of up to one and a half years.
- Drug smuggling on an especially large scale is punishable by imprisonment from 10 to 20 years and restriction of freedom for two years or without it.
- Carrying prohibited substances by an organized group in large quantities with the use of violence against a customs officer entails imprisonment from 15 to 20 years, with the addition of restriction of freedom for a period of two years or life imprisonment at the discretion of the court.
In addition to detention, the offender may be fined up to 1 million rubles or the amount of his salary or other income for up to five years. Lot sizes are measured in accordance with Decree of the Government of the Russian Federation dated October 1, 2012 No. 1002.
When the article does not apply
If the smuggling was carried out by a person who was not in collusion with a criminal group and did not realize at all that he was transporting prohibited substances, then, according to Art. 229.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, his act will not be qualified as a violation. But the organizer who sent this person across the border with a prohibited substance will be charged under the article in question.
