News

The Vladimir Region Office of the Investigative Committee has finished the investigation against members of a stable armed group (gang) – residents of Moscow Region Sergei Sizov, 39, Igor Denyapkin, 49, Andrei Zakharov, 26 and Ilya Bezzubov, 30. Depending on the role of each one, they are charged with crimes under Part 2 of Article 209 (membership in a stable armed group (gang), Part 4, items “a”, “b” and “c” of Article 162 (robbery committed by an organized group on a very large scale causing grievous bodily harm to a victim), Part 4, items “a” and “b” of Article 158 of the RF Penal Code (theft).

The investigation against 41-year-old leader of the gang Sergei Zakharov charged with all the said crimes and a robbery-related murder has been stopped owing to his death. He killed himself in November 2014, in a pre-trail prison.

The indictment includes 22 counts of crimes committed by the accused from May 2010 to August 2014 in the city of Moscow, Vladimir and Moscow Regions and Zubova Polyana District of Mordovia.

Thanks to high professional level of one of the investigators who used special psychological methods of investigation, the investigators managed to solve 7 major crimes committed by the gangsters in 2010 and 2011. Those include infamous assaults on the Bolshakovs family on 30 August 2011 in the town of Suzdal, on the Sibiryakovs and Yermolovs families committed on 16 June 2010 and 12 October 2010 in the town of Gus-Khrustalny and its district.

The investigators have done a lot of work to find evidence, carried out more than 500 interviews of witnesses in different regions of Russia, run more than 300 different kinds of forensic examinations, including DNA tests, trace, dactylographic, vehicle and medical examinations.

According to investigators, in 2010, ex-con Sergei Zakharov, who had served time for robberies and illegal storage of firearms, set up a gang in Nogisnk District to attack people, steal expensive cars, money, jewelries and other valuables.

He recruited for the gang “trustworthy” people in good physical shape – Sizov’s acquaintances, Denyapkin and Zakharov’s nephew Andrei Zakharov, another Zakharov’s acquaintance Bezzubov joined the gang in 2013.

The principles of the gang were subordination to the leader, hierarchy, illegality, common interest the gangsters took in easy money, strict discipline. The gang had firearms, including a sub-machine gun and pistols, knives, crow bars, baseball bats. They wore masks and gloves each time they committed a crime, and immobilized their victims by handcuffs, duct tape or plastic binders. For communication they had walkie-talkies, cell phones and vehicles.

 While planning each of the crimes the gangsters chose the venue and target, secretly followed the chose vehicle, went to settlements, usually around private cottages and summer suburban houses to have a better look at the area, posted gangsters in the area and took some other measures.

The things they got were then sold and the leader divided the money among the gangsters.

Here are detailed accounts of some of their crimes demonstrating their cold-blooded disposition.

On the late evening of 30 August 2011, the leader of the gang and three gangsters armed with pistols and a sub-machine gun, a knife and a metallic bar arrived in two cars in Suzdal District to rob the family of Aleksandr Bolshakov. They approached the house and used a special devise, a gun with a poisoned bullet to kill the bandog, they then got inside the house. The head of the family, his wife and their 8-year-old grandson were attacked. They tied woman’s legs and arms with a duct tape and pistol-whipped her. Demanding money and other valuables, the perpetrators took her husband to the ground floor, beat him and then Sergei Zakharov stabbed the 57-year-old man to death. The gangsters took out 230,000 rubles.

In October 2010, the bandits got into the house of businessman Yermolov in the town of Gus-Khrustalny. They beat the man with a baseball bat, handcuffed him and tied up his legs and then tortured with a hot iron demanding money and valuables. Having taken the money they fled the scene.

In May 2010, they acted with the same cruelty to get money and jewelries from a resident of Mordovia.

In October 2013, the gangsters attacked another family from Mordovia to get hold of their vehicle. Aware that the man knew how to box, they shot him 7 times and then bashed up with a bat and a crow bar.

Almost on every occasion, women suffered from the actions of the gangsters, who were not perturbed by the presence of small children, who also sustained severe moral sufferings.

A total of 65 people have been recognized as victims who suffered a total damage of more than 50 million rubles. Following a request filed by the investigators, the accused were placed in custody pending trial.

By now the 100-file criminal case against Andrei Zakharov and Sergei Sizov with a signed indictment has been referred to court.

Ilya Bezzubov and Igor Denyapkin made plea deals so the cases against them were severed to form separate lawsuits and are already being tried by the Vladimir Region Court of Justice.

Operational support has been provided by the Crime Detection Directorate of the Russian Interior Ministry and crime detection departments of the Vladimir Region and Mordovia Offices of the Interior Ministry.