The article deals with the issues of qualification of the sale of narcotic drugs using caches. The author, commenting on the resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of 15.06.2006 No. 14 “On judicial practice in cases of crimes related to narcotic drugs, psychotropic, potent and poisonous substances” (16.05.2017), analyzes law enforcement practice in terms of assessing the stages of drug sales through bookmarks. Methods. The research uses methods of analysis and synthesis, system, structural, formal and legal. Brief conclusions. Based on examples of court decisions in specific criminal cases, typical errors in qualifying the illegal sale of narcotic drugs through bookmarks, caused by an incorrect interpretation in some cases of the concept of sale of narcotic drugs and the moment of its end, are considered. It is concluded that the sale of narcotic drugs committed by a group of persons by prior conspiracy or by an organized group is completed for each of the accomplices only if it is established that the purchaser has been informed of the location of the stash. Thus, the actions of a pawnbroker who is detained while constructing a hiding place in a place not previously agreed upon with the purchaser, as a rule, are subject to qualification as an attempted sale.