Russian Federation unmasked a gang that imported $30 million of banned foreign cheese

Russian police say they have broken up a gang producing millions of dollars worth of contraband cheese using banned Western ingredients.

Police swooped in and arrested six people over the snacks after they found the criminals were sneaking in the “forbidden” dairy products.

President Vladimir Putin recently signed a decree that food breaching Moscow’s own sanctions must be destroyed. Labels were used to falsely identify the cheese as having come from known foreign cheese makers and the produce was sold in distribution outlets in Moscow and Saint Petersburg.

Two of the ring’s organisers and four other participants, aged 29 to 58, have been detained and face up to 10 years in prison for “especially large-scale fraud by an organised group”, police said.

Prosecutors also announced a hotline on which citizens can report the sales of banned food outlawed under government countermeasures to U.S. and European sanctions against Russian Federation over Ukraine. Authorities have warned that the embargoed products could prove harmful.

The destruction of Western food has prompted criticism from politicians and activists and a rare outcry from ordinary Russians, who say the produce could feed the country’s poorest.

“Unscrupulous traders are importing these products without subjecting them to any quality control or adhering to transport and storage conditions, which could endanger people’s health”, prosecutors said in an online statement.

The country’s national agricultural oversight agency has, in recent weeks, publicized the destruction of products including cheese. As of Monday, 321 tons of animal products had been seized, of which 48 tons were destroyed, the agricultural watchdog agency Rosselkhoznadzor said in a statement.

While some Russians demand the government help end the food embargo, which has caused a significant rise in food prices and forced many to restrict consumption, others see the sanctions as an unjustified attack on the Russian people.