A court in the Russian Federation has sentenced a Tajik drug dealer to life in prison

The Moscow regional court sentenced Tajik national Sherali Tabarov to life in prison on December 21, according to Russian media reports.

Fourteen other nationals of Tajikistan were sentenced to between six and twenty-five years in prison.  They will serve their terms in a high-security penal colony

The sentence followed their conviction on charges of organizing a criminal group and a large-scale drug trafficking.

The gang of Sherali Tabarov was reportedly engaged in smuggling Afghan narcotic drugs into the Russian Federation from 2012 to 2015.  Over the report period they had smuggled up to 600 kilos of heroin into Russia.  

In 2003, a court in the Russian Penza oblast sentenced Sherali Tabarov to 10 years in prison for drug-related crimes.  At the request of the Tajik authorities he was extradited to Tajikistan, where he was released in a couple of years under an amnesty.