Kuzbass car drivers parked in court

Six members of the organized criminal group (OCG) “Vertoletovskie” were sentenced to long terms of imprisonment in Kuzbass. It consisted of security guards for cafes, trading bases and a nightclub. The group specialized in extortion and auto-set-ups, the judicial review of its criminal case took two and a half years, as a result of which the members of the organized criminal group received from 9 to 19 years in prison as a punishment.

On Thursday, the Central District Court of Novokuznetsk completed the proceedings in the criminal case of the Vertoletovskie criminal community, finding all six defendants guilty. According to the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Kemerovo Region, they were accused of committing 25 different crimes, while in fact there were more members of the group – 24 people were prosecuted during the preliminary investigation. Of these, two entered into a pre-trial agreement, others were participants in the crimes committed without participation in organized criminal groups.

As follows from the file of the court, Sahib Nadirov, Nikolai Bogdanov, Emil Gyandzhimov, Vitaly Poletaev, Alisher Salimov and Vadim Tarasov were convicted in this case. They were accused of committing crimes under Part 4 of Art. 159.5 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (insurance fraud), part 3 of Art. 163 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (extortion), part 1 of Art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (organization of a criminal community), paragraph “a” part 3 of Art. 161 (robbery committed by an organized group). The organizer of the criminal community, according to the materials of the case, was the head of security of one of the Novokuznetsk entrepreneurs, 36-year-old Sahib Nadirov. He invited his colleagues to the organized criminal group – security guards of trading bases, cafes and a nightclub. To discuss and plan crimes, community members gathered in one of the cafes located in the Novokuznetsk area, called “Helipad”, which gave the name to the organized criminal group.

At the same time, the members of the group “propagated the prisoner way of life among young people, involving new participants in organized criminal activity,” the press service of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs said.

The activities of the Vertoletovskys were suppressed by employees of the operational-investigative unit of the state protection of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia for the Kemerovo Region in 2018 as a result of a special operation. During the investigation, it was established that they committed 25 crimes, the victims of which the court recognized eight individuals and six legal entities. In the latter case, these are various insurance companies. To extort money, the members of the group used various approaches, law enforcement officers said. In one case, a conflict between a member of an organized crime group and two townspeople was used for this. As a result, the gang members began to extort 500 thousand rubles from the latter. compensation for “wrong behavior”, and after the threats received more than 110 thousand rubles.

Community members beat another resident of Novokuznetsk, recorded his video confession about involvement in drug trafficking, after which, under the threat of distribution of the video, they began to demand money. He was forced to take out a loan and transfer funds to the defendants, as well as his car – in total for 720 thousand rubles. Often, the defendants used unregistered weapons to commit extortion, police said. The investigation also established the involvement of organized crime groups in a series of staging accidents in order to receive insurance payments.

During the investigation, forensic examinations were carried out, more than 100 witnesses were interviewed. The volume of the criminal case amounted to 88 volumes.

The total amount of damage caused was more than 5.1 million rubles. For its compensation, the property of the convicts was seized.

The trial has been ongoing since September 2020. The defendants in the case did not admit their guilt either during the investigation or in court. Five members of the organized criminal group were sentenced to imprisonment for terms of 9, 10, 15, 16 and 17 years, the organizer – for 19 years. Restriction of liberty was also applied as an additional punishment. The verdict has not yet entered into force.