XPost: talk.politics.guns, soc.culture.african.american, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: sac.politics   
   From: drooler@gmail.com   
      
   WNBA All-Star and two-time Olympic champion Brittney Griner has been   
   detained in Russia for three weeks, after she was arrested for having vape   
   cartridges in her luggage at a Moscow airport, according to Russian news   
   sources and a former teammate.   
      
   Griner, 31, who won the WNBA championship in 2014 with the Phoenix Mercury   
   and played for a Russian team in the off season, faces 5 to 10 years in   
   Russian prison if convicted on drug smuggling charges.   
      
   “Brittney Griner is one of the biggest stars of the league and a   
   generational talent. This really is unsettling,” tweeted Khristina   
   Williams, who founded GirlsTalkSportsTV.   
      
   NFL alum Damien Woody also reacted to the news of Griner’s arrest.   
      
   “Brittney Griner has been detained for 3 weeks and we’re just hearing   
   about it now?” the former New York Jet tweeted.   
      
   Word of Griner’s arrest, which comes against the backdrop of Russia’s   
   invasion of Ukraine and crippling sanctions laid out against it by the   
   West, emerged Saturday.   
      
   Russia’s Interfax news agency reported a female US basketball player was   
   arrested in February at Sheremetyevo Airport, just outside Moscow, after   
   arriving on a flight from New York.   
      
   A drug-sniffing dog indicated narcotics in her luggage, and when the bag   
   was X-rayed, “so-called ‘vapes’ ” were discovered “with a specific odor,”   
   according to Interfax, which cited the Russian Federal Customs Service.   
      
   “The expert found that the liquid is a narcotic drug cannabis oil (hashish   
   oil),” Interfax said.   
      
   The independent Russian news Web site Lenta identified the player as   
   Griner.   
      
   Interfax said she was detained as a “preventive measure” against drug   
   trafficking.   
      
   The report did not say exactly when Griner was arrested, but her Team USA   
   teammate Angel McCoughtry wrote on Instagram that she’s been held for   
   three weeks.   
      
   “My homie been there for three weeks. Free her,” she wrote in a comment on   
   a post about Griner’s arrest.   
      
   Her team, the Phoenix Mercury, confirmed a “situation in Russia” without   
   mentioning specifics.   
      
   “We are aware of and are closely monitoring the situation with Brittney   
   Griner in Russia,” the team said in a statement.   
      
   “We remain in constant contact with her family, her representation, the   
   WNBA and NBA. We love and support Brittney and at this time our main   
   concern is her safety, physical and mental health and her safe return   
   home.”   
      
   An edited video of what appears to be moments surrounding her arrest was   
   posted to Twitter.   
      
   In the clip, Griner places a wheeled suitcase into an airport screener,   
   then a man goes through a suitcase on a table on the opposite side of the   
   screening machine.   
      
   The man is next shown rifling through paperwork set on the table, with   
   Griner sitting next to him on the table, her back to the camera. She   
   appears to sign some forms before the clip ends.   
      
   Griner hasn’t posted on her Instagram account since Feb. 5.   
      
   Calls to her wife, Cherelle Watson Griner, and her parents, Sandra and   
   Raymond Griner, were not immediately returned.   
      
   USA Basketball said in a statement that it is “aware of and closely   
   monitoring the legal situation facing Brittney Griner in Russia.”   
      
   “Brittney has always handled herself with the utmost professionalism   
   during her long tenure with USA Basketball and her safety and well being   
   are our primary concerns,” the organization said.   
      
   Griner has played during the WNBA off-season for the Russian team   
   Ekaterinburg in the Euroleague since 2015.   
      
   “We are aware of the situation in Russia concerning one of our members,   
   Brittney Griner. Our utmost concern is BG’s safety and well-being. On   
   behalf of the 144, we send our love and support. We will continue to   
   closely monitor and look forward to her return to the US,” the WNBA said   
   in a statement.”   
      
   https://nypost.com/2022/03/05/all-star-brittney-griner-arrested-in-russia-   
   on-drug-charges/   
      
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