Russian diplomats leave UK on plane involved in cocaine case
On Tuesday March 20, the Russian diplomats who were expelled from London due to the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter left the UK on the Il-96 aircraft featured in the Argentine cocaine scandal, Evropeiska Pravda reports.
A British TV channel published photographs from the Stansted airport, where the 23 Russian diplomats and their families boarded a plane to leave the country.
Interestingly, the diplomats were sent to Moscow on an Il-96 plane with hull number RA-96023 which belongs to the Russian Presidential Administration. This same aircraft features in a case concerning cocaine smuggling from Argentina to Russia.
The Argentine Gendarmerie published photographs on Twitter from the case to shut down the drug supply channel from Argentina to Russia. Among the pictures is one of an aircraft with hull number 96023 being loaded with briefcases containing what the smugglers thought was 400 kg of cocaine.
Earlier it was reported that the Argentine police had arrested five Russian diplomatic staff members in connection with 400 kg of cocaine being discovered in their diplomatic mail. The cargo was packed into 12 briefcases, and was intended to be flown to Russia.