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In mythology, unicorns are creatures of purity and grace, whose existence is a matter of legend but whom no one has ever seen with their waking eyes. Pure liquid fentanyl is not a symbol for grace – rather it is a sign of wretchedness and decline. However, the myth surrounding it has a lot in common with unicorns. It is, however, just the substance picked up by a detection dog in the Narva border crossing point earlier this year. A substance of which only traces had been found before.
The recovered 3-Methylfentanyl or “White Persian” is 16 times as strong as ordinary fentanyl (White Chinaman). It cannot be used in its pure form. While a method could be found in laboratory conditions, it remains virtually impossible in the ordinary world.
It has been rumored for years that pure fentanyl is coming to Estonia from Russia. Whereas further specifics remain a mystery as Estonian authorities had found faint traces of 3-Methylfentanyl on bottles in only a single investigation.
The tracks were discovered on Andrei Kajalin in 2009. He was the supply chain's “chemist” who adjusted the concentration of the substance to fit the market. Any mistake in that work will immediately result in overdoses.
The majority of Estonia's 84 narcotics-related deaths in 2015 were fentanyl overdoses. While these cases concerned diluted fentanyl, different levels of purity on the market cause problems. An excessive concentration will result in an overdose and death in just a few minutes.
Marijuana in plain sight
Officers of the Narva border point pulled over a Volkswagen Passat, driven by an Aleksei Krutikov, for a routine checkup at 5.05 p.m. on January 12. The narcotics dog immediately picked up a scent and initially led to the discovery of a piece of marijuana in the front console.
On the one hand it would seem Krutikov had to have been very foolish to try and cross the border with a piece of marijuana visible in his car. In reality, it might have been a ploy to have his marijuana confiscated on the border to reach Tallinn with the fentanyl.
However, Krutikov's car was searched thoroughly, and officers discovered 79.65 grams of 3-Methylfentanyl hidden in a medicine bottle. Krutikov remained calm, which is unusual for a trafficker.
Krutikov said, when giving statements in Harju County Court yesterday, that he did not know what was in the bottle. He was allegedly told it was heavy water and that he had realized transporting it was illegal because the client did not want to do it himself. Krutikov claimed the client had told him sniffer dogs wouldn't be able to discover the substance.
At the time of his apprehension, Krutikov was already a suspect in another narcotics crime that concerned growing of cannabis plants in a flat in Tallinn's Lasnamägi borough. However, he was clearly just a mule in the fentanyl trade who picked up the substance in one country and was to hand it over in the other. He would not handle the substance or sell it on.
The police looked at what Krutikov was doing before he crossed the border. He had driven from Tallinn to St. Petersburg the previous day. He stopped in the village of Ropcha in Leningrad Oblast for some coffee and received a message, according to which the meet would take place in front of the Rossiya Hotel in St. Petersburg. When he reached the hotel, a man dressed in black placed two boxes on the back seat of his car, one containing a pair of children's dancing shoes, the other a medicine bottle. While the shoes bear no significance, the bottle contained the 3-Methylfentanyl.
Long-time acquaintances
Who was the man with the boxes? Krutikov said in court that it was Suleiman Dungurov, an old acquaintance. Krutikov had supported Dungurov financially for a time after Dungurov was imprisoned in Finland for handling opioid addiction drug Subutex.
Upon his release from prison, Dungurov offered Krutikov work – work to bring to Estonia enough fentanyl to intoxicate 600,000 people. Both men are now looking at sentences of 15 years.
Krutikov, betting on lenient agreement procedure, told the court everything that had happened. He talked about how they planned the operation and carried it out. However, it is merely Krutikov's testimony that could be challenged in court as his word against Dungurov's.
Public prosecutor Vahur Verte has presented evidence that proves contact between the phones of the two men, as well as surveillance protocols of Krutikov's vehicle.
There exists another very direct piece of evidence reminiscent of proof in Sherlock Holmes stories. It is a piece of paper torn from a notebook. It depicts a scheme of how Krutikov should get to St. Petersburg and back. The bottom corner of the slip has a stick figure that might seem as part of the scheme at first glance, but isn't.
New light was shone on the figure by search of Dungurov's home that produced a matching notebook. Every page in this notebook has a similar stick figure in the bottom corner that seems to be running when the pages are flipped in rapid succession.
This discovery ties Krutikov and Dungurov together in a way that is extremely difficult to deny. Handwriting analysis carried out later also showed the scheme had been drawn up by Dungurov. Krutikov admitted as much in court.
How Krutikov plans to talk his way out of responsibility for the crime will be revealed tomorrow when the trial continues. Another interesting detail is that Dungurov's initial defender was Anatoli Jaroslavski who also represented “the chemist “Andrei Kajalin. Dungurov switched defenders mid-trial.
Dungurov is known to the authorities for past narcotics crimes and discharging his Beretta pistol near the junction of Tammsaare tee and Pärnu maantee in Tallinn in 2008. While no one was injured in the shooting, Dungurov was convicted of aggravated breach of public order.