Topical issues of investigative practice of smuggling narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursors or analogues as well as highly potent substances (based on data of Siberian transport police department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation)

The analysis of the elements of the subject-matter of the case in smuggling drugs is presented in the article and namely, target of crime that is narcotic drugs, psychotropic and highly potent substances, modus operandi in the crime, mens rea (state of mind) in the given type of crime and the perpetrator. Furthermore some problems arising in the course of proving individual elements of mentioned crimes are identified in the article based on the analysis of investigative practice of smuggling narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, their precursorsor analogues as well as highly potent substances. Mens rea (state of mind), target of crime, crime scene and modus operandi are considered as individual elements of such crimes. The authors present the basic system of tactical investigative tasks, allowing to make an algorithm of the investigation that enables to improve the quality of the investigation of the crime type being analyzed.