A court in Argentina has handed lengthy prison terms to two Russian-born men convicted in an operation that uncovered almost 400 kilograms of cocaine on the premises of the Russian Embassy in Argentina in December 2016.
The Buenos Aires city court on April 7 sentenced 39-year-old Ivan Bliznyuk to seven years and seven months in prison, and 45-year-old Aleksandr Chikalo to six years in prison after finding them guilty of being members of an international criminal group that bought almost 400 kilograms of cocaine at a cost of $3 million in Argentina in 2016.
They planned to transport the drugs to Russia, where they had a street value of $39 million at the time.
Bliznyuk and Chikalo, who have lived in Argentina for more than 20 years, rejected the charge, insisting that they had nothing to do with the drugs.
In January, a court in Moscow sentenced four other men involved in the high-profile case to lengthy prison terms.
SEE ALSO: Four Men Convicted In Russian Embassy Cocaine Case Handed Prison TermsAndrei Kovalchuk, whom investigators called the mastermind of the operation, was handed an 18-year prison term, while businessmen Ishtimir Khudzhamov and Vladimir Kalmykov and a former employee of the Russian Embassy in Argentina, Ali Abyanov, were sentenced to 13 years, 16 years, and 17 years in prison, respectively.
None of the defendants is or was a diplomat.