In Argentina, took the "cocaine trace" to Russia

As the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires was involved in a drug scandal.
26.02.2018
Kommersant
Origin source
The scandal with cocaine in the Russian embassy in Argentina is gathering new details - there was a deciphering of conversations between the organizers of drug supplies, during which the Russian ambassador is mentioned. Earlier, in one of the buildings of the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires, almost 400 kg of cocaine were found. What is known about the owners and recipients of suitcases with drugs? And what is the role of the Russian embassy in this story?

The Russian Foreign Ministry had to explain a lot after the Argentine media last week reported the discovery of a gigantic batch of cocaine in the Russian embassy. Now the department has another reason for comments - in a fresh interpretation of the negotiations between the defendants in the smuggling case, the Russian ambassador to Argentina Victor Coronelli is casually mentioned. Suspects - a police officer of Buenos Aires Alexander Chikalo and his colleague Ivan Bliznyuk - talk about their boss, a certain seigneur "K", who allegedly quarreled with the ambassador because of what there were difficulties with supplies. Prior to this, judging by the conversation, the seignior "K" had no problems gaining access to a diplomatic car to transport cargo to the airport.

However, as previously reported in the Foreign Ministry, it was thanks to Mr. Coronelli's vigilance that the criminals were able to figure out. A year ago, he reported to the police that 389 kg of cocaine were hidden in the basement of the school at the embassy. Packages of powder with a total cost of approximately € 50 million were spread out over 12 suitcases.

Special services of both countries decided to replace the drug with flour, equipped suitcases with GPS-trackers and began to track the people involved. The Russian Foreign Ministry told us that cocaine eventually belonged to an unnamed employee of the embassy's technical staff. By that time he had already left Argentina, since the term of his business trip had expired.

The Soviet and Russian diplomat Sergei Ordzhonikidze believes that the suspect could easily carry any cargo to the embassy's territory: "I will not give concrete examples, but I witnessed that some employees, in particular, technical services, carried out some kind of machinations. But they, of course, were later revealed. If a person works at the embassy, ​​then he is not subject to verification, so calmly can, say, put something in the car and leave the embassy territory. In addition, it often happens that employees are involved in some kind of construction or repair work, which allows them to keep their things at work. "

Argentine media called the name of the suspect - Ali Abyanov. He had to send cocaine to Russia under the guise of diplomatic mail, but he did not have time to do this until the end of the trip. A year later he asked to send him his bags, not realizing that they had been packed with flour for a long time. In Moscow, he was detained by two consignees - Vladimir Kalmykov and Ishtimir Khuzdamov.

In Argentina, in the meantime, Alexander Chikalo and Ivan Bliznyuk were arrested. And the seignior "K", presumably, businessman Andrei Kovalchuk is on the run.

It is unlikely that drug traffickers used this delivery channel for the first time, says lawyer of the bar association "Karabanov and partners" Eugene Gomulin: "This is a big party and a lot of money. It is possible that earlier we received some less voluminous "parcels" to forward, so this time it was decided to take a chance with such a large batch. After all, hardly anyone at once decided on this, if there were no successful stories before that. "

In this story with cocaine there are more questions than answers. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs refutes the information that the drugs were being prepared for dispatch by diplomatic cargo, since the suspected employee had no access to the formation of diplomatic mail. So either the attackers really intended to transport their cargo in another way, or the investigation will soon reveal new details, and possibly surnames.

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