The Solntsevsky District Court of Moscow has referred the case on cocaine smuggling from Argentina to Russia to the Dorogomilovsky Court for retrial, the court's press service told Sputnik on Thursday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th August, 2020) The Solntsevsky District Court of Moscow has referred the case on cocaine smuggling from Argentina to Russia to the Dorogomilovsky Court for retrial, the court's press service told Sputnik on Thursday.
"On August 19, the Solntsevsky District Court of Moscow ruled to refer the criminal case under the jurisdiction of the Dorogomilovsky Court of Moscow," the press service said.
The Solntsevsky Court began considering the case in November 2019 and managed to attract juries to the trial. After the referral, the case, which includes over 50 volumes of files, will be completely reviewed.
In February 2018, the security forces of the two countries thwarted a shipment of 389 kilograms (857 Pounds) of cocaine from Argentina to Russia as part of a joint operation that started in 2018, when the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires found several bags with cocaine in one of its buildings. Russian diplomats alerted Argentinian police about the discovery.
The suspects in the cocaine case are Ishtimir Khudzhamov, Vladimir Kalmykov, Ali Abyanov and Andrei Kovalchuk, an alleged leader of the smuggling gang who was arrested in Germany and extradited to Russia in July 2018. According to the three suspects, Kovalchuk, who switched between introducing himself as an employee of the embassy and intelligence services, "misled them" by offering them a chance to earn money.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Kovalchuk has worked neither in the Foreign Ministry nor Russian diplomatic missions abroad.
