In Irkutsk, a court sentenced bandits to terms from 4 to 13 years for a series of abductions , engaged in kidnapping under the guise of fighting drug traffickers. Karina Golovacheva, a representative of the regional department of the Investigative Committee of Russia (TFR), told Lente.ru about this.
The defendants were found guilty of a number of grave crimes, including participation in a gang, kidnapping, racketeering and extortion. The leader of the criminal group was sentenced to 13 years in prison in a strict regime colony, his accomplices received from four to 11 years.
The investigation and the court established that the gang was created in 2016 by a resident of Irkutsk, 14 people joined it. They had an arsenal and several cars. In the same year, the bandits attacked a local resident, shot him several times from a traumatic pistol, inflicted multiple knife wounds, and then severely beat him. In the spring of 2017, gang members in several cars blocked a taxi, dragged out their acquaintances and took them to a deserted place. They were beaten there and demanded some information.
In May 2017, Interior Ministry officers, with the support of the Russian Guard SOBR fighters, carried out a special operation to detain the gang members. During interrogations, they claimed to have fought drug traffickers. However, during the investigation, this version was not confirmed. The leader of the gang was involved in extorting money from the kidnapped people, and also forced them to pay for protection.
Three members of the gang were previously convicted, two more are on the wanted list.