Police detained two Tajik nationals and a resident of Irkutsk, a city in East Siberia, who are believed to be members of an international crime group smuggling heroin from Tajikistan to Novosibirsk for distribution elsewhere in Siberia.
"They were detained in the act of handing over the goods. A sports bag with the drugs was found in the trunk of the criminals' car," the service said in a statement, adding that the three men had long been shadowed by police.
"Novosibirsk had been turned into a transfer site where large batches of heroin were distributed and sent over to neighboring cities," the service said in a statement.
The suspects face up to 20 years in prison if convicted on charges of attempts to sell large batches of illicit drugs.
Much of the heroin sold in Russia is trafficked via Tajikistan which shares a border with Afghanistan, the world's largest heroin producer.
