MOSCOW, October 12 (RAPSI) – Moscow’s Tverskoy District Court on Friday extended detention for three defendants in a criminal case over attempted cocaine smuggling from Argentina to Russia for a month, the court’s spokesperson Anastasia Dzyurko told RAPSI.

Thus, Vladimir Kalmykov and Ishtimir Khudzhamov will remain detained until December 13, while Ali Abyanov will stay in jail until December 12.

One more defendant in the case is Andrey Kovalchuk, who earlier was detained until December 1 upon a court order. Kovalchuk was arrested in Germany on March 1. Later, he was extradited to Russia and put in jail.

All the men are charged with drug trafficking and illegal production, sale or transportation of drugs.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, law enforcement authorities of Russia and Argentina have collaboratively suppressed delivery of a large consignment of drugs (cocaine) from Argentina to Europe. The drugs ready for delivery were found in one of the Russian embassy buildings in Buenos Aires in 2016. Cocaine allegedly belonged to an embassy technical staff member, whose duty journey was over by that time. During the conducted operation, Russian and Argentinean citizens were arrested, the ministry stated earlier.