US basketball player Brittney Griner, who was arrested in Russia in February, pleaded guilty to drug smuggling on Thursday. Griner was arrested during a search at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport when she arrived from the United States for carrying some cartridges for a hash oil vaporizer (a cannabis derivative).
On Thursday, during a hearing at his trial, which began last Friday, Griner admitted those cartridges belonged to him, but stated that he accidentally placed them in the case and that he had no intention of violating Russian law to violate.
Griner is one of the most famous basketball players in the world and faces up to 10 years in prison for drug smuggling. However, many believe the allegations against him are motivated only by political reasons, as Russia’s retaliation for US support for Ukraine. There has also been much talk in recent days about a possible prisoner swap between Russia and the US: the latter could send Viktor Bout, a Russian citizen known as one of the biggest arms dealers of recent decades, to Russia in exchange for Griner. , sentenced to 25 years for selling large quantities of weapons to terrorists and war criminals.