The Investigative Departments of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Primorsky and Kamchatka Territories are investigating criminal cases initiated in connection with illegal hunting, keeping and trafficking of especially valuable wild birds belonging to the species listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation (Part 3 of Article 258.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

According to the investigators of Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of Russia for Kamchatka Territory, three local residents aged from 34 to 57 years acting as an organized group of people during the period from August to November 2021 caught, transported and kept six individuals of Gyrfalcons belonging to especially valuable species of wild birds of the Falconiformes order. The birds were kept in a specially equipped cellar in an apartment in the village of Ossora, Karaginsky District of Kamchatka Territory, from where they were removed and, after examination by an ornithologist, released into their natural habitat.

The defendants in the case intended to sell the gyrfalcons to buyers from a foreign country. The damage to the Russian Federation from the criminal actions of the organized group is estimated at more than 13 million rubles. Two of the defendants pleaded guilty to the alleged crime and cooperated with the investigation, while one of the group's accomplices denied involvement in the act.

In addition, according to investigators of the Investigative Committee of the Investigative Committee of Russia for the Primorsky Territory, on November 26, 2021 two foreign citizens, being on Tsesarevich Embankment in the city of Vladivostok, acting as a group of persons by prior agreement, decided to purchase several individuals of gyrfalcons, listed in the Red Book of the Russian Federation. They had with them money to purchase the birds, and during negotiations with a citizen, who acted in the context of an operational and investigative measure, they asked him to demonstrate ready-for-sale gyrfalcons. The seller presented bags with fake birds for examination, and the criminal actions of the criminals were stopped by officers of the Border Guard Department of the Federal Security Service of Russia for Primorsky Territory and the Border Guard Department of the Federal Security Service of Russia for the Eastern Arctic Region. At the investigator's request, the court ordered that the two defendants be remanded in custody.

Criminal cases are being investigated with operational support from the Border Department of the Federal Security Service of Russia for the Eastern Arctic Region, the Border Department of the Federal Security Service of Russia for Primorsky Territory, and the Kamchatka Regional Department of the Russian Interior Ministry.