A U.S. citizen who was arrested in Russia earlier this month on drug smuggling charges has been released and is on his way home to West Virginia, according to his hometown newspaper, the Wheeling News-Register.
Kalob Byers, an epileptic, was detained on Feb. 7 at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport when customs officials allegedly found a “significant amount” of drugs in his baggage. The contraband consisted of cannabis-laced gummies and marmalade which he takes, along with melatonin and Vitamin C gummies, to help with his epileptic seizures.
The 28-year-old spent eight days in a Russian jail, where he was deprived of his medication and suffered multiple grand mal seizures, according to his mother, Tonya Shular. He was facing a prison term of up to 10 years.
Byers was released to the United States Embassy in Russia on Sunday after the family reached out to the Trump administration and local politicians for help.
“We were reaching out to our representatives in Washington to try and get some help from (President Donald Trump),” Shular said. “We received great support from our representatives here in West Virginia and in D.C. We are grateful for all the help and support we received from our friends, the media, and our representatives. Most of all, we give God the credit,” she told the News-Register.
Shular said her son, who works at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital, was visiting Russia with his fiancee, a Russian woman he met when she was in the United States as a foreign exchange student. They had entered the country to finalize the paperwork for their marriage and, while at the airport, a security dog alerted airport authorities to Byers’ luggage.
Airport security found the gummies and marmalade, and Byers tried to explain to them they had been prescribed by a doctor in the United States. All marijuana, including medicinal marijuana, is illegal in Russia. Byers and his fiancee were detained on drug smuggling charges.
“Anyone who knows my son knows he’s not a druggie, doesn’t smuggle drugs across other countries,” Shular wrote in a Facebook post. “He’s an upstanding citizen getting ready to marry the love of his life. He nor his fiancée deserve what they were being charged with.”
Shular said after her son was released to the U.S. Embassy, he was allowed to go back on his medications and was “feeling good.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration successfully negotiated the release of Marc Fogel, a Pennsylvania teacher who was serving a 14-year sentence in Russia for allegedly possessing medically prescribed marijuana.
Fogel was returned to the U.S. in exchange for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert facing Bitcoin fraud charges in the United States.
Byers’ release comes ahead of diplomatic talks between top U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, which are expected to focus on ending the war in Ukraine and improving U.S.-Russia ties.
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