---
title: "Tobacco Instead of Drones: How SBU and HUR Disrupted a Terrorist Chain in Odesa"
description: "SBU and HUR thwarted a terror attempt in Odesa: an attack drone was attempted to be smuggled in shipments of counterfeit tobacco. The organizer turned out to be a local businessman working for the FSB. 🚫🇷🇺🚁"
date: 2026-05-29T14:08:00.000Z
lang: en
url: https://xab.info/en/posts/explosives-for-terror-smuggled-from-abkhazia-to-odesa-details-of-special-operation
tags: []
publisher: "XAB.info"
---

# Tobacco Instead of Drones: How SBU and HUR Disrupted a Terrorist Chain in Odesa

![SBU officer in camouflage and balaclava with a weapon in the background of a special operation in Odesa](https://xab.info/media/2026/05/29/v-odessu-iz-abkhazii-vezli-vzryvchatku-dlya-terakta-podrobnosti-spezoperatsii/agent-sbu-s-oznacheniem-na-rukbaze.webp)

A large-scale scheme that could have led to a tragedy in the port city of Odesa has been exposed. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), with support from the Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) and the Ukrainian Navy, dismantled a channel intended to smuggle an attack drone into Ukraine for a terrorist act. The operation, which lasted over a year, uncovered a complex logistics network disguised as legitimate trade.

### Smuggling with a Double Bottom

The mastermind behind the scheme turned out to be an Odesa businessman currently abroad, running an illegal business in temporarily occupied Abkhazia. In exchange for "protection" from Russian intelligence services for his smuggling activities in the Caucasus, he agreed to fulfill an FSB order: deliver an attack drone with optical fiber control, packed with explosives, to Odesa.

The delivery route went through the waters of the Black Sea. To avoid suspicion, Russian military equipment was hidden inside large shipments of tobacco products. Near Snake Island, the cargo was transferred from large civilian vessels to small boats, ensuring a stealthy approach to the coast.

### Caught "Red-Handed"

To ensure the vessels passed without hindrance, the organizer recruited three accomplices in Odesa and bribed a local border guard. Officers of the "Timur" special unit of the HUR, together with colleagues from the SBU and the Navy, documented the gang's actions step-by-step and detained four participants in the port area.

During searches in the Odesa and Chernivtsi regions, law enforcement officers seized:

- 1,800 cartons of counterfeit tobacco;

- A Russian UAV with a warhead;

- Illegally modified automatic weapons;

- Communication devices and incriminating documentation.

### Responsibility and Context

Four detained individuals have already been notified of suspicion regarding the illegal transportation of persons across the border. A warrant for the organizer is being prepared. The perpetrators face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.

This is not the only recent victory for counterintelligence. Previously, an 18-year-old artillery spotter was detained in Kyiv, and a Russian fighter who offered armed resistance was liquidated in the Donetsk region. In Odesa, security services have also detained a cleric of the UOC-MP who acted as a GRU agent and coordinated strikes on the city. Each such operation is a prevented catastrophe and lives saved.