OP-ED

Mark Galeotti: The Argentine cocaine scandal is just the tip of a Russian iceberg

By Mark Galeotti.

Published March 2, 2018 at 2:58 pm

Undated handout picture released on Feb.22, 2018 by Argentina's Security Ministry taken in Buenos Aires during a police sting operation which resulted in the seizure of nearly 400 kilos of cocaine from the Russian embassy in Buenos Aires and arrested several members of a drug trafficking gang. Argentina's Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced in a press conference on February 22, 2018 that the drugs were discovered in an annex of the embassy. "A gang of narco-criminals was trying to use the diplomatic courier service of the Russian embassy" to ship the drugs to Europe, she said, adding that Russian and Argentine police had decided to mount a sting operation after the Russian ambassador informed them of the drugs find in December 2016.

Photo by AFP

It can be depressing how often Russian reality sounds like a script from a thriller.

Twelve suitcases of cocaine worth some 40 million euros ($50 million) found in an embassy school in Argentina. Drugs smuggled in diplomatic flights. A sting. A cast including a shadowy Russian security officer and an Argentina cop of Russian extraction.