American Arrested for CBD Gummies Released by Russia After Week of Hell

A 28-year-old American has been released after a week of hell in Russian captivity.

Kalob Wayne Byers, a hospital worker from near the state line of West Virginia and Ohio, was arrested Feb. 7 for allegedly possessing CBD gummies and cannabis-laced marmalade inside Moscow’s Vnukovo International Airport.

Those products, reportedly sniffed out of his luggage by a security dog, were to help with severe epileptic seizures he suffers from and not for recreational use, his mom, Tonya Shular, told The Intelligencer and Wheeling News-Register.

That reasoning did not prevent his arrest, however. Cannabis is illegal in Russia—as the WNBA star Brittney Griner learned the hard way in 2022 when she was busted carrying the drug in a Moscow airport. She pleaded guilty and spent 293 days behind bars before her release was negotiated as part of a controversial prisoner swap.

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Shular said her son’s time in captivity was particularly hellish. He was without his medication for eight days, she claimed, and suffered from “several” grand mal seizures—a seizure impacting the entire brain.

Byers has since been turned over to the U.S. Embassy and was given his medication, Shular said, so he’s now “feeling good.”

His mom posted an update to Facebook that said he was in U.S. custody in the early hours of Saturday morning. Russian authorities confirmed his release and suggested it was a gesture of goodwill. Peace talks involving Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. are expected to take place Tuesday in Riyadh—the Saudi Arabian capital where U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio already arrived on Monday morning.

Reports say Byers will soon be flown from the Russian capital to Istanbul, Turkey, where he will catch a flight home to Washington.

Shular said her son was visiting Russia to shore up paperwork so he could marry his fiancée, Naida Mambetova, a 24-year-old Russian national. Shular said the couple met while she was a foreign exchange student in the states. It is unclear if Mambetova, who was also detained, has been freed or not. A Facebook page in Byers’ name appears to show the couple visiting Russia together as recently as last summer.

“Anyone who knows my son knows he’s not a druggie, doesn’t smuggle drugs across other countries,” Shular posted to Facebook. “He’s an upstanding citizen getting ready to marry the love of his life.”

The relieved mom called Byers’ release a “miracle.” Had he been convicted in a criminal trial, reports in Russia said he could have been sentenced to as many as 10 years behind bars.

“I was able to talk to him by phone just a little while ago and he sounds good and is very thankful for God’s miracle,” Shular wrote on Facebook.