Ex-football player Bugayev sentenced to 9 years in prison for drug trafficking

Prikubansky district court sentenced former Russian national soccer player Alexei Bugaev to nine years in prison for attempted drug trafficking. This is informed on September 24 by the joint press service of the courts of the Krasnodar region.

"Alexey Bugaev was sentenced to imprisonment for a term of 9 years 6 months with serving the sentence in a strict regime colony. The sentence came into legal force," - indicated in the message of the press service in Telegram-channel.

Bugayev was detained in Krasnodar on suspicion of drug dealing on November 1, 2023. He tried to escape from the police, after which an administrative case was brought against him for disobedience to the lawful order of a police officer (Art. 19.3 of the CAO) and arrested for seven days.

During detention, the footballer was confiscated a package with a powdery substance. Izvestia source said that Bugayev had half a kilogram of mephedrone. It was reported that the ex-football player took the drug substance from the stash, planned to transport it to Sochi and sell it there. A criminal case was opened against him under Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Attempted sale of drugs on a large scale").

Lawyer Ekaterina Maklichenko said that Bugayev did not have drugs on him, as well as he did not resist the police. She said that the law enforcers took some papers from Bugayev. Maklichenko noted that the ex-football player signed everything that was given to him, and all these papers are now "passed off as the truth".

The ex-footballer is 42 years old. He played in the Moscow "Torpedo" and "Lokomotiv". In 2004-2005, Bugayev took part in seven matches of the Russian national team, after which he announced the end of his sports career.