The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR), and the Ukrainian Navy have dismantled a Black Sea smuggling channel supplying weapons and Russian drones during a special operation that lasted over a year. “During operational work, a maritime smuggling route through the Black Sea was documented. The suspects used civilian vessels to transport large consignments of tobacco products, concealing weapons and Russian-made unmanned systems among the cargo,” the HUR reported on Telegram.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. The SBU said the operation helped prevent a potential terrorist attack in Odesa. “Smugglers were detained who, at the request of the Federal Security Service (FSB), were to deliver weapons to the port city, including a fiber-optically controlled strike unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) with explosives,” the statement said.
According to case materials, the weapons were hidden among a wholesale shipment of tobacco products smuggled across the Black Sea from Russian-occupied Abkhazia.The route ran toward neutral waters near Zmiinyi Island, where cargo was transferred from a main vessel to smaller boats for covert delivery to the Odesa coast.SBU officers documented each stage of the operation and detained four suspects “red-handed” while unloading excisable goods together with weapons in the Odesa port area.
