nsnbc : The Kremlin has denied reports that a presidential aircraft used by high-ranking state officials was used for smuggling cocaine from Argentine to Russia. The Russianplanes.net tracking website that reported on the link between the plane and the cocaine scandal went offline, stating that “The site was removed on its own initiative, definitively and irrevocably”.
Earlier this month Argentine authorities arrested six people suspected of involvement in a cocaine smuggling ring between the Russian Embassy in Argentine’s capital Buenos Aires and Russia.
The aircraft allegedly used in the drug operation was shown in footage released by Argentinian law enforcement. Russian RBC business reported Monday that the aircraft was identified as a Russian diplomatic plane.
Yelena Krylova, a spokeswoman at the Russian Office of Presidential Affairs, with operates the presidential fleet, told the Russian Interfax news agency on Tuesday that media reports linking the Russian diplomatic plane to the cocaine scandal were not true.
“Journalists have drawn conclusions based on inaccurate information, in this case, photographs that can easily be falsified with modern technology,” the spokesperson, Yelena Krylova, was cited as saying.
The Russianplanes.net plane-tracking website that RBC cited in tracing the ownership of the Ilyushin Il-96-300 airliner that was linked to the cocaine / embassy scandal went offline shortly after the RBC report.
Earlier this month six people including a former Russian embassy official and an Argentinian police officer were arrested following a years-long investigation into cocaine smuggling via the Russian Embassy in the Argentine capital Buenos Aires to the Russian Federation. The arrests were the result of a joint Argentina – Russia investigation which began in December 2016 when nearly 400 kg cocaine were discovered on the embassy’s grounds.
The discovery and investigation resulted in a joint sting operation, sat in motion “after” the cocaine cache was discovered. Argentine’s federal Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, told journalists on Thursday “We have dismantled an international cocaine trafficking organization operating between Argentina, Russia and Germany.”
In late 2016 Russia’s Ambassador to Argentina, Victor Koronelli, alerted local authorities after finding 16 bags of drugs hidden in a “school” on the embassy’s grounds. Argentinian police seized the 389 kilograms of cocaine worth over $60 million and reportedly replaced it with bags of flour fitted with a tracking device.
The bags were then traced as they were shipped to Russia as diplomatic luggage in December 2017. Two men who collected the bags in Russia have been arrested. Bullrich named a “Mr. K,” who “remains at large in Germany” as responsible for supplying the cocaine to the Russian Embassy. A former embassy official identified as Ali Abyanov, who reportedly helped plan the shipment, was detained at his apartment in Moscow on last week, media report.
Russia is holding three suspects of the drug smuggling case in pretrial detention, while a former embassy staffer thought to be the mastermind of the group has fled to Germany, the Interfax news agency reported.
F/AK – nsnbc 27.02.2018
Source Article from https://nsnbc.me/2018/02/27/website-linking-cocaine-scandal-and-russian-presidential-plane-gone-offline/
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