The defendants in the case of the smuggling of Argentine cocaine to Moscow were found guilty, but deserving of leniency

The defendants in the case of the smuggling of Argentine cocaine to Moscow were found guilty, but deserving of leniency. Such a decision handed down jury trial.

The prosecutor demanded that they be found guilty.

In 2016, Andrei Kovalchuk, Vladimir Kalmykov, Ishtimir Khudzhamov and Ali Abyanov were detained in this case. Then on the territory of a school belonging to the Russian diplomatic mission, they found 389 kg of cocaine, which was packaged in 360 bags and 12 suitcases.

The joint investigation of the Russian and Argentinean police lasted for over a year. The main defendant, Andrei Kovalchuk, did not plead guilty and argued that the diplomats were to blame for everything, and that cocaine did not belong to him. Center “Dossier” published large-scale material on the supply of cocaine to Russia through the embassy in Argentina, which called into question the official findings of the investigation, according to which Russian diplomats and officials were innocent.

Investigation The Insider, who also reviewed both the Argentinean and Russian case materials, allows us to cast aside the last doubts: the Russian ambassador and other high-ranking diplomats were active organizers of cocaine drug trafficking, and the Russian authorities actively opposed the punishment of those responsible, ignoring evidence, obstructing the investigation and organizing hacker attacks …