A large chain drug store operating in 22 regions of the country was liquidated by police officers. The center of illegal business was located in the Magadan region, and dozens of packers and couriers worked for criminals throughout Russia. Izvestia investigated the structure of the criminal organization.
Eastern Express
Narkoshop, which supplied Siberia, the Urals, the Volga region, the Far East, Central Russia and even Kaliningrad with various types of prohibited substances, was able to work for almost five years. The operation to eliminate the criminal community began with the detention last summer of a courier who was transporting a large consignment of the potion.
According to Izvestia’s source in law enforcement agencies, the investigation of this case led to six men, the eldest of whom is 42 years old, and the youngest is 19, and a 36-year-old woman who had previously served a sentence for theft. Most of the defendants live in Magadan or are connected with the region. One of the organizers was previously engaged in business, but a few years ago he embarked on a criminal path. Before the man was not judged, unlike his other “colleagues” – only the youngest of them had no problems with the law. The accomplices were charged with possession of drugs, hooliganism, driving while intoxicated, and theft. All this, however, did not prevent them from implementing a project in the field of drug trafficking.
According to investigators, at the last stage of its existence, the site sold goods in two dozen regions, where it had its own people, whose identities are being established by the investigation. The detectives figured out the structure of the criminal community (accusations under Article 210 of the Criminal Code are also incriminated to accomplices), which consisted of specialized units. The first group can be conditionally called the “personnel department”, it was engaged in recruiting; the second was responsible for packaging, storage, transportation of goods and work with wholesale buyers. The third “department” controlled interaction with retail mortgages and work with autonomous warehouses (as a rule, in small towns). In addition, the organization had its people in 22 regions of presence.
– In practice, an autonomous warehouse means a proven cladman, who is given the “weight” and entrusted with packaging. In fact, this is a person who has his own small criminal business, a staff of “runners,” explains an expert on international drug trafficking, retired colonel of justice Sergei Pelikh.
Part of the “weight” is set by the store, and based on the results of the boundary control, an inventory is carried out.
“If everything went well for the store, there were no serious losses of the substance, the regional manager receives a salary and another batch for sale,” says a retired officer.
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, over 100,000 drug crimes were detected in the country in the first half of the year. 42 thousand of them were made using the Internet. The number of arrests for the sale of prohibited substances increased by almost 20%.
Mutual responsibility
However, there are still criminal gangs, where the organization is built on a family or ethnic basis.
– In such organized crime groups, it is rarely possible to prove the involvement of accomplices after the drug dealer is caught red-handed. Criminal traditions are still strong in these groups – they remain silent, ”a representative of one of the organized crime units told Izvestia.
In general, the police successfully resist drug trafficking, which involves face-to-face communication between accomplices, the expert noted. So, in the Novgorod region, at the end of July, a couple of previously convicted residents of the village of Parfino were detained with a large batch of synthetic drugs, packaged in doses for further sale to addicts. The detectives followed the spouses for several weeks – they made bookmarks not only in the Novgorod region, but also in the Pskov region.
Personnel control
Konstantin Kudryashov, a lawyer specializing in drug trafficking cases, told Izvestia about how large drug dealers control ordinary distributors.
– When “employed” by the pawnbroker, the potential candidate transfers a small deposit, usually in the amount of 5 thousand rubles, which is designed to cover the losses of the drug store in case of theft of goods, – he says.
In the future, as “career growth”, the pawnbroker receives part of the money in hand, and part is directed to increase the amount of the pledge. This is how the store insures its risks by entrusting ever larger shipments of drugs to the hoarder. Control is exercised through a system of fines for incorrect work, which are deducted from the “salary” or from the amount of the deposit.
The battle for shots
Breaking out of the vicious circle is now easier than in the old days. According to the interlocutor of Izvestia, earlier the accomplices knew each other personally, so leaving the drug business posed a threat to the organization.
“Now everything is given without contact and anonymously, so the exit of a person from the drug business does not pose a threat to the organizers. As a rule, a former “employee” cannot hand anyone over to the authorities, because he simply does not know anyone personally. When exiting the business, the treasurer, in fact, risks only the amount of the deposit, – explains the interlocutor.
By itself, a person experienced in the drug business is of significant value to the drug shop, and the losses from the departure of personnel are quite tangible.
Illegal marketplaces fill the “staff shortage” through criminal specialists who recruit and train the skill of making bookmarks, sending a report on their location, etc.
“They recruit new employees where they can, among consumers, place advertisements for hiring in drug stores, thematic chats and channels. Large stores have their own staff of “personnel officers” who receive a salary and a percentage,” comments Konstantin Kudryashov.
Portrait of a criminal
According to the lawyer, the real image of the boss of the drug mafia hardly corresponds to the artistic incarnations.
– They often look like IT people and are very unlike the heroes of gangster TV shows. I believe that the law enforcement system should be focused on combating the creators of the Internet infrastructure for the sale of drugs, the owners of marketplaces and drug stores – the main beneficiaries of the drug business. But they are difficult to catch, and therefore they are almost never prosecuted. For them, ordinary drug addicts and ordinary performers are often given out, the severity of punishment for which, as a rule, does not correspond to their real role in the commission of a crime, ”lawyer Kudryashov shared his opinion.
Expert Sergei Pelikh, in turn, notes that in some regions, citizens still earn a living by providing their passport data and photos to drug store managers.
– In case of loss or misappropriation of goods belonging to the store, they can really suffer. For these purposes, so-called “sports” are remotely hired for cryptocurrency,” Pelikh said.
He notes that if desired, the employer can easily identify the person who works for him. This circumstance and the compromising evidence that the boss has on the cladman or packer opens up wide opportunities for manipulating a person.