MOSCOW, November 28 (RAPSI) – The Tverskoy District Court of Moscow has extended detention of Andrey Kovalchuk, a defendant in the criminal case over smuggling of attempted cocaine smuggling from Argentina to Russia, the press-service of the court has told RAPSI.

The defendant will stay in jail until March 1, 2019. Kovalchuk was arrested in Germany on March 1. Later, he was extradited to Russia.

All the defendants, Kovalchuk, Vladimir Kalmykov, Ali Abyanov and Ishtimir Khudzhamov 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.