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Russian agency details crimes of ethnic gangs in Moscow

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  • Russian agency details crimes of ethnic gangs in Moscow

    RIA news agency, Moscow, in Russian
    10 Mar 04

    Russian agency details crimes of ethnic gangs in Moscow


    Moscow, 10 March: According to the department for fighting organized
    crime, about 4,300 crimes uncovered in Moscow in 2003 were committed
    by people from the North Caucasus and Transcaucasus. This was said by
    the head of the operative-investigative unit of the Moscow department
    for fighting organized crime, Col (Police) Andrey Bolshakov, at a
    news conference on Wednesday [10 March].

    Crimes committed by these people are mainly of latent nature and the
    victims are, as a rule, people of the same ethnic group, or those who
    live in Moscow and who are involved in illegal business dealing,
    Bolshakov said.

    He said that completed investigations (of the cases already submitted
    to courts) showed that ethnic criminal gangs committed 295 crimes of
    various degree of seriousness last year. A total of 255 of the crimes
    are of economic nature, including 250 frauds.

    A total of 136 cases have been instituted against leaders of criminal
    gangs, including 12 cases against so-called "godfathers".

    Bolshakov said that the largest ethnic criminal group acting in
    Moscow is the Azerbaijani one. They are involved in extortion and
    kidnapping, mainly of people from the Azerbaijani diaspora, and they
    commit crimes on the consumer market.

    According to the colonel, the most influential ethnic criminal group
    is Armenian. The group is involved in contract killings, gambling and
    extortion.

    He said that the Georgian-Abkhaz criminal group is one of the
    earliest ones in Moscow, it has the greatest number of godfathers and
    its members are primarily involved in car thefts and extortion.

    Speaking about the Ingush criminal group Bolshakov said that its
    representatives are mainly linked to embezzlement in the credit and
    finance sphere.

    The most odious group is the Chechen criminal group which is mainly
    built on clan principles and which is the most closely-knit in
    nature. These people are involved in embezzlement, kidnapping as well
    as in controlling the arms and drugs trade, Bolshakov said.
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