In a drug trafficking case, Russia sentences US citizen Robert Woodland to 12 and a half years in prison

Robert Romanov Woodland, a citizen of the United States, was found guilty of attempting to distribute drugs by a Russian court on Thursday and was sentenced to 12-1/2 years in a maximum-security penitentiary colony, according to Woodland’s attorney and Moscow prosecutors.

Woodland was arrested in Russia at the beginning of January, and his attorney, Stanislav Kshevitsky, told Reuters that Woodland had acknowledged some of his involvement.

The authorities revealed video footage of a shaven-headed Woodland in a glass courtroom cage, listening calmly but emotionlessly to the verdict being read out.

In a statement, the prosecutor’s office in Moscow said that Woodland, working for a large-scale criminal organization, had brought roughly 50 grams of mephedrone—a type of amphetamine—from a pickup location outside of the city to an apartment where he packaged them for sale.

Prosecutors claimed that he was apprehended when he was depositing the drugs into a secure storage.

The 32-year-old is one of many Americans being held in Russia as relations between the two countries worsen for the first time in years.

Due to the possibility of erroneous detentions and harassment by Russian security agencies, Washington has consistently advised all Americans to depart Russia without delay.

A request for response from a representative of the American embassy in Moscow was not immediately answered.

Woodland, also known by his pals as “Rob,” informed a Russian media in 2020 that he was adopted by American parents from Russia in 1993.

Woodland claimed to have returned to Russia in order to see his biological mother. Woodland appeared to hold both an American and a Russian passport. Russian state television aired their emotional reunion.

Robert Woodland lived outside of Moscow and had a Facebook page indicating that he was employed as an English instructor in Russia.