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Senior diplomat slams ‘fake news’ about Argentine cocaine case

Earlier Russia and Argentina conducted a joint sting operation to bust a delivery channel of a large batch of narcotics (389 kg of cocaine) to the European market

Russian Foreign Ministry Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

Russian Foreign Ministry

© Mikhail Tereshchenko/TASS

MOSCOW, February 28. /TASS/. Those seeking to smear any fruitful cooperation between Russia and Argentina on curbing drug trafficking cook up myths about the ‘cocaine case’, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

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"Individuals, who from the very start are motivated by a pursuit of negativity, have been concocting new twists and turns and distorting details about this situation. They are the ones who cook up fables, and are carrying out a focused effort to tarnish the unprecedented fruitful cooperation that allowed the circumstances of this high-profile case to be uncovered," Ryabkov explained.

"The bogus stories over the past days have nothing to do with the real case, including all speculations that initially the Argentine special services had allegedly worked on it, only with the Russian side joining later," Ryabkov stressed.

"Discourse on the alleged role in this case of any structures, which have not been mentioned in the official comments of the Federal Security Service and the Russian Foreign Ministry, are malicious mud-slinging and speculation along the lines of fake news," he added.

Cocaine smuggling case

Russia’s Foreign Ministry earlier reported that the law enforcement agencies from Russia and Argentina had conducted a joint sting operation to bust a delivery channel of a large batch of narcotics (389 kg of cocaine) to the European market. Law enforcement officials from both countries detained citizens of Russia and Argentina on suspicion of being involved in drug trafficking.

According to Russia’s Foreign Ministry, the large batch of drugs detected in one of the buildings of the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires belonged to a technical staff employee who had completed his tour of duty by that time.

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