Hugo Alberto Formes Romero entered Moscow on a tourist visa in September 2025
14ymedio, Havana, February 10, 2026 – The Cuban national Hugo Alberto Formes Romero was sentenced in Volgograd, Russia, to eight years and six months in prison for attempting to illegally sell narcotics through information networks and for being part of a criminal network. The 20-year-old must serve his sentence in a maximum-security penal colony.
Although an appeal is possible, five days after the sentencing no legal challenge has been filed.
The Volgograd Prosecutor’s Office accuses Formes of entering Russia to work as a drug trafficker. “Following instructions from his contact, the young man attempted to prepare a stash containing 0.946 grams of mephedrone, but was detained by police,” the office stated as part of the investigation.
Mephedrone, or 4-MMC, also known as “meow-meow,” is a synthetic drug that has flooded Moscow. According to a BBC News report last September, “Russia is mired in a narcotics epidemic that many compare to the fentanyl crisis in the United States.”
Formes entered the country on a tourist visa on September 19, and four days later was detained in an intoxicated state by anti-drug officers in the Traktorozavodsky district. At the police station, he refused to undergo a toxicology test to determine whether he had consumed any drugs in addition to alcohol.
Authorities referred the Cuban’s case to the District Court, where he denied drug use and claimed he was tired from traveling. His arguments were dismissed, he was found guilty, and his deportation was ordered.
However, authorities kept the investigation open, and in less than 24 hours he went from facing expulsion from the country to being charged as a drug trafficker. An officer told the portal V1.RU that Formes’s case is like that of many foreigners, including Cubans, who enter Moscow to commit crimes.
“Criminals deliberately fly to Volgograd to carry out drug-trafficking activities,” the officer said. In his experience, “these people find information about earnings through messaging apps and arrive with this purpose.”
The official emphasized to the same outlet that “if someone knowingly takes a risk, the law establishes responsibility. That is how his employment ended.” The officer stressed that drug trafficking, “even in a small quantity, but with other indicators, already constitutes a serious crime.”
This is not the first case of Cubans imprisoned in Russia in connection with drugs. Many are recruited through social media with job offers. Last November, a man surnamed Espinosa Rodríguez was placed in pretrial detention in St. Petersburg, in western Russia, for the crime of “large-scale illegal distribution of narcotics.”
The man arrived in the country in October of last year in St. Petersburg after accepting a job offer that “did not specify what it would involve,” reported the local outlet Forpost.
“There they received him and told him he would have to pick up drug packages from designated locations, transport them, and photograph the shipments, sending reports through a messaging system.”
Espinosa Rodríguez remains in pretrial detention. The Cuban stated that he was born and raised on the Island, where he worked as a laborer earning about $209. He added that “an acquaintance offered him part-time work in Russia,” prompting him to travel to the country.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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