Source: Russian men arrested in Colombia linked to Metairie cocaine seizure

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) - Two Russian men recently arrested in Colombia are linked to more than 150 pounds of cocaine found last year in Metairie, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

Colombian authorities wrote on social media last week that forces recently took Vitalii Zhikharev, 41, and Oleg Khazov, 39, into custody in the Colombian cities of Cartagena and Medellin. Those authorities said that the men were booked on extradition orders out of New Orleans.

In a press release from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said a third superseding indictment in a criminal case against the men charges them and four others, Alexander Altergott, 57, from Russia, Luca Detto, 45, from Italy, Boris Yakovlev from Russia and Diego Gomez-Morillo from Colombia, for their alleged involvement in a Colombian-Russian drug trafficking organization.

A grand jury indicted the men earlier this year. A federal judge unsealed the court record Friday.

U.S. Attorney David Courcelle accused the men of conspiring to import hundreds of kilograms of cocaine into the United States.

In the indictment, Zhikharev and Altergott also face allegations they supported The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, a Colombian group the U.S. has designated a terrorist group.

Courcelle alleges the men specifically supported FARC-EP, which according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office is a faction of FARC that emerged after its rejection of a 2016 peace agreement between FARC and the Colombian government.

“FARC-EP is Colombia’s most powerful and violent dissident group and has continued to carry out criminal acts, including assassinations, extortion, hostage-takings and armed assaults,” Courcelle’s office wrote in a press release.

A Fox 8 source said Zhikharev and Khazov ran the drug trafficking operation by coordinating the transport of cocaine through hidden spaces in sailboats. The source said the operation was linked to a drug seizure of more than 150 pounds in Metairie last May.

Retired FBI Agent Mike Zummer said it makes sense New Orleans would be a target in a case like this.

“It’s such a large port, and so much...U.S. commerce runs through here,” Zummer said in an interview Tuesday afternoon. He added that he would expect the port to therefore have “some amount of drug importation.”

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said agencies in Jefferson Parish, Italy and Colombia helped federal authorities investigate the case. Courcelle said the federal investigation has been about protecting the public.

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