Being a journalist hasn’t ever been seen as a lucrative job, but it isn’t so bad that you’d need to sell drugs on the side to pay the bills. However, that’s exactly what a Vice Noisey editor had been doing for the past few years, according to a new report from the National Post.
Noisey Canada editor Yaroslav Pastukhov, who went by the pen name Slava Pastuk, is accused by the report of running an international drug smuggling ring that would bring cocaine and other drugs from North America to Australia. Pastukhov allegedly recruited from within Vice’s offices, leveraging the writers’ low salaries to offer them $10,000 to travel to Australia with mystery suitcases. None of them took up the offer, but one person did.
In December of 2015 Pastukhov’s former roommate Jordan Gardner, a music producer, was caught with over $5 million worth of cocaine at a Sydney airport. When Gardner tried to bail from the agreement in Vegas, men allegedly held a gun to his head and threatened his girlfriend and family. Gardner and three others are still awaiting sentencing, which can be up to life imprisonment. Pastukhov has not responded to any requests for comment, but has not posted for Noisey since early 2016.
Just to be clear, HNHH’s editorial staff doesn’t traffic drugs. We’re too square for that.
[via National Post]