News

The Irkutsk Region authorities of the Investigative Committee have finished an investigation against 16 members of a criminal community. Depending on the role of each one, they are charged with a crime under Parts 1 and 2 of Article 210 of the RF Penal Code (organization of a criminal community (criminal organization) or participation in it).

The investigation has revealed that in the period of time between 2000 and 2001, in Nizhneilimsky District, Irkutsk Region, a 30-year-old man set up a criminal group consisting of his acquaintances from the town of Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky. The members of the group got together to commit crimes and felonies against citizens in order to get money and other pecuniary gain.

In 2003, the organizer of the gang, Alexander Zakharov and his right hand Nikolai Chervov reinforced the gang, created units, and distributed to them and certain individuals functions and territories, where the units and individuals were to commit crimes. This way, they created a criminal community and headed it.

When the gang was still developing, in 2003, its members killed a leader of an opposing gang and beat to death a local resident, who was an unofficial criminal leader, because the latter had tried to organize the leader’s murder.

Later on, members of the gang, whose number reached 22, enjoying lack of competition, impunity and lawlessness extorted money from local businessmen. If the victims refused to pay, the accused set their properties on fire, stole their cars and them gave them back for a ransom.

The gang continued acting even after one of its leaders, Sergei Kashnikov had been arrested for 2 murders in 2010.

However, since that time, police forces started systematic operations against the leaders and members of the gang: they questioned citizens, requested documents preparing the ground for investigators.

In November 2013, the leaders and main members of the gang were detained on suspicion of a crime under Part 4 of Article 111 of the RF Penal Code. When the leader of the gang had been apprehended in the city of Novosibirsk, his right-hand men tried to run away, but were held during well-paned investigative operations of the Irkutsk Region authorities of the Investigative Committee. 5 of the criminals were placed in custody then.

The investigative group of the Irkutsk authorities of the Investigative Committee with operative support provided by operatives of regional offices of the Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Security Service have questioned more than 400 people, run dozens of forensic inquiries and detained other suspects. As a result of this hard work, the planned result was reached: all known members of the gang have been prosecuted and charged on 43 counts. IN all, there are 26 accused. Investigation against 7 of them has been closed due to death of the accused, expiration of the period of limitation or other reasons.

3 of the accused have concluded cooperation deals and their cases were severed to form separate law suits. Sentences have already been passed on them. It should be noted that the tactics chosen by those accused – confession, active help to the investigation and giving evidence against other accused, made their terms in prison much shorter.

At present, the 100-volume criminal case has been sent to court. 16 people are going to stand trial, 6 of whom are in custody, including leaders of the gang.