The U.S. Embassy with a U.S. national flag, seen behind a building with a Russian national flag in Moscow, Russia, Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

A Shadyside resident and Paden City native who had been detained in Russia on suspicion of drug smuggling has been released and is on his way back to the United States, according to his family.

Russian news agencies said that Kalob Wayne Byers, 28, was detained at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport after flying in from Istanbul on Feb. 7. The news agencies said that airport authorities found CBD gummies and cannabis-laced marmalade in his luggage.

Those drugs, along with melatonin and Vitamin C gummies, are to help with the severe epileptic seizures that Byers deals with, according to his mother Tonya Shular.

On Sunday, Shular said that Byers, who had been in Russian custody since Feb. 7, had been released to the United States Embassy in Russia and was on his way home. He would travel by plane from Russia to Turkey, then from Turkey to Washington D.C. Shular said that, during his eight days of detainment, he had not been receiving his medication and had suffered several grand mal seizures.

Shular said now that Byers had been released to the U.S. Embassy, he was back on his medications and was “feeling good.”

“We were reaching out to our representatives in Washington to try and get some help from (President Donald Trump),” Shular said. “We received great support from our representatives here in West Virginia and in D.C. We are grateful for all the help and support we received from our friends, the media, and our representatives. Most of all, we give God the credit,”

Shular said her son, who works at WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital, was visiting Russia with his fiancee, a Russian woman he met when she was in the United States as a foreign exchange student. They had entered the country to finalize the paperwork for their marriage and, while at the airport, a security dog alerted airport authorities to Byers’ luggage.

Airport security found the gummies and marmalade, and Byers tried to explain to them they had been prescribed by a doctor in the United States. All marijuana, including medicinal marijuana, is illegal in Russia. Byers and his fiancee were detained on drug smuggling charges.

“Anyone who knows my son knows he’s not a druggie, doesn’t smuggle drugs across other countries,” Shular said. “He’s an upstanding citizen getting ready to marry the love of his life. He nor his fiancée deserve what they were being charged with.”

Earlier this month, the United States and Russia had completed a prisoner swap that saw Marc Fogel – a Pennsylvania teacher serving a 14-year sentence for having what his family said was medically prescribed marijuana – return to the U.S. in exchange for Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert facing Bitcoin fraud charges in the United States.