Aslan Gagiev was isolated in a special regime
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the leader of one of Russia’s largest killer groups to life imprisonment Aslana Gagievaknown by the nickname Jacko, Investigative Committee reports. Same punishment demanded the prosecutor’s office.
Aslan Gagiev (Dzhako)He was found guilty under Part 1 of Art. 210 of the Criminal Code (organization of a criminal community), part 1 of Art. 209 of the Criminal Code (creation of three armed groups-gangs), Part 2 of Art. 105 of the Criminal Code (murder of two or more persons committed by an organized group, associated with banditry) and Part 3 of Art. 222 of the Criminal Code (illegal trafficking in weapons and ammunition).
Gagiev will serve his sentence in a special regime colony. Earlier, during his testimony, Dzhako stated that he did not consider himself guilty and had nothing to do with the contract killings, and the prosecution failed to prove his guilt, reports TASS. The lawyer asked to acquit his client.
The criminal organization, led by Gagiev, operated in Moscow, the Moscow region and the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania since 2004. As the Investigative Committee reported, the organized crime group consisted of more than 50 participants.
In 2012, Dzhako created three more armed groups on the territory of North Ossetia, whose members killed six people, including the former deputy prosecutor of the Industrial District of Vladikavkaz Oleg Oziev. In total, according to investigators, the groups organized by Gagiev killed 60 people, including politicians, businessmen, and security officials. Among them, as Rostov publication 161.ru writes, is the owner of National Capital Bank. Dmitry Plytnikmayor of Vladikavkaz Vitaly KaraevHead of the Republican Department for Combating Organized Crime Mark Metsaev, Deputy Prime Minister of North Ossetia Kazbek Pagiev.
Gagiev himself financed the criminal activities of the Family. He quickly became a successful businessman and a wealthy man. For example, Big Brother was the owner of three distilleries, including one of them, the largest in all of Russia – Salyut; was engaged in the construction business, worked in a financial leasing company.
“Killer No. 1” is not ashamed, but proud of what he did, but not what he was convicted of. Gagiev denies his guilt in the charged murders. Aslan was not afraid of a life sentence, he understood that such a punishment awaited him, but Gagiev was worried that the prosecution required a special regime of imprisonment. Among other things, this means that the prisoner will not be able to maintain contact with his family, and visits will be allowed once a year.
– I have 25 wives and the same number of children, it will take 25 years to see all of them, is this normal at all? – Jacko is indignant.
Gagiev managed to escape from Russian security forces, and in 2014 he was put on the international wanted list. His detained in Austria a year later, and in 2018 he was extradited to Russia.
Now, according to the Investigative Committee, 37 gang members received long prison sentences, seven were put on the international wanted list, and another seven were killed as a result of internal conflicts from 2010 to 2014.
The final sentencing hearing in the 2nd Western District Military Court took place in two rooms at once. In one, the defendants heard the verdict: Inal Zasseev, Oleg Alymov, Ivan Bagaev, Mels Gobozov, Goneri Dzhioev, Igor Dudiy, Chermen Zangiev, Dmitry Kodoev, Victor Pronin, Andrey Sankin, Eric Tautiev and Ruslan Yurtov and their lawyers. […] The most severe punishment – life imprisonment – was received by Inal Zasseev and former junior police lieutenant Ruslan Yurtov. According to investigators, they accounted for about 27 murders. […] Police Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Pronin and Colonel Andrei Sankin […] the court sentenced him to 12 and 14 years in a maximum security colony, respectively. Oleg Alymov and Goneri Dzhioev received 20 and 16 years in prison, respectively.
– All the groups that were well known at that time – the Izmailovsky, Orekhovsky, Solntsevo – had some kind of “sponsored” objects. They took money for the “roof”, went to the “arrows”, looked after their businessmen. As for Gagiev’s gang, they didn’t have any businessmen, they were just a syndicate of killers,” the expert told Izvestia.
How Gagiev’s right hand Arthur Dzhioev betrayed his “family.” “Son rats everyone out”
The Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia approved the indictment in the second criminal case Arthur Dzhioeva – the right hand of the country’s main killer Aslan Gagiev, known as Dzhako: he will be tried for 17 murders. Dzhioev, who received the nickname Sonny from Dzhako himself, is already serving a 17-year sentence in the first case. He was not given a life sentence only thanks to a deal with the investigation – the information received from him about the criminal activities of Gagiev’s gang turned out to be very useful for the investigation. Who Sonny was and how he betrayed his “family” was investigated by Lenta.ru.
For a long time, Artur Dzhioev was undeservedly in the shadow of his patron Aslan Gagiev, but it was he who left a bright mark in the criminal chronicles of the country. Dzhako and 12 members of his organized crime community (OCS) are now being tried in the Southern District Military Court located in Rostov-on-Don. 24 members of the organized crime group have already been sentenced to long terms, including life. Seven more of their accomplices are on the international wanted list. Dzhioev, however, stands out from this crowd.
Young and bold
Arthur was born in the village of Kvaisa in South Ossetia, from there he moved to Vladikavkaz, where fate brought him together with Gagiev in a bar. He drew attention to an athletic 18-year-old guy who stood out among the rest of the public with his daring behavior. Dzhako needed such personnel, because he had plans to conquer all of North Ossetia. Dzhioev joined his gang in 2001. At that time, Gagiev’s organized crime group was still in its infancy; his wards were engaged in petty crime, gradually expanding their influence in the criminal world.
Before earning the nickname Son from the leader himself, Dzhioev was initially called Figure due to his athletic build. Jacko personally raised the daring Arthur, taught him to shoot and practiced martial arts with him. Gradually, Sonny’s authority in the gang grew, new members were taught that Dzhioev is Dzhako’s right hand and everyone must unquestioningly follow his instructions, and those who disobey will face punishment.
Gagiev showed affection not only in relation to Sonny, he liked to perceive his group as a family – by analogy with the Italian mafia.
Criminal investigation operatives of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Republic of North Ossetia believe that by the beginning of 2005, Gagiev assigned most of the functions of managing his gang to Sonny, turning him into the brain of the entire criminal structure, and he began to keep a low profile. Jacko trusted Sonny as himself.
Sonny’s blacklist
According to investigators, it was Dzhioev, on the personal instructions of Gagiev, who from 2004 to 2014 organized dozens of murders in Vladikavkaz and its environs, as well as in Moscow and the region. He is involved in the execution of the Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of North Ossetia Kazbek Pagiev, the Mayor of Vladikavkaz Vitaly Karaev, the Deputy Prosecutor of the Industrial District of the city Oleg Oziev, the head of the Department for Combating Organized Crime (UBOP) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of North Ossetia Mark Metsaev and the head of the department of the Republican Criminal Investigation Department Vitaly Cheldiev .
The bandits dealt with law enforcement officers for obvious reasons: Metsaev was investigating the crimes of Gagiev’s gang – he set himself the goal of bringing out the bandits. In 2008, his car was machine-gunned. And Cheldiev was eliminated for looking for Metsaev’s killers.
In addition to the security forces, Dzhioev, on the instructions of Dzhako, exterminated competitors and gang members: in 2007, the crime boss Artur Bekmurzov died, in 2010 and 2012, Maxim Nikolaev and Sergey Beglaryan, who were planning to leave the gang, died, in 2014, regular OPS killers Givi Slonov and Timur Ezeev . The list of bandit victims also includes Lashi Avlokhashvili, Dato Javakhishvili, Leo Alborov, Khokh Bibilov.
One of the first orders carried out by Sonny at the dawn of his career with Dzhako was the murders of Moscow bankers Dmitry Plytnik in 2004 and Alexander Slesarev in 2005. Both were associated with Sodbiznesbank. Rosfinmonitoring became interested in a credit institution that did not provide mandatory information about its operations. Later it turned out that Sodbiznesbank specialized in laundering criminal capital. As a result, Sodbiznesbank became the first bank whose license was revoked by the Central Bank in 2004 on the basis of the law “On combating the legalization and laundering of proceeds from crime and the financing of terrorism.” It is assumed that Slesarev and Plytnik withdrew about $450 million, which became the motive for the murder. According to one version, among these funds was a bandit common fund; according to another, the bandits had a share with the bankers when withdrawing money and dealt with them in order to simply hide the ends in the water.
Dmitry Plytnik was kidnapped and tortured for about a day. Then his body was placed in a barrel, cemented and dumped into the Moscow Canal. The next target was Slesarev, and his family and associates died along with him.
In 2005, the banker went on a pilgrimage to holy places. Two cars – a black SUV in which the priest and Slesarev’s bodyguards were, and a silver Mercedes in which Slesarev himself was driving with his wife, 15-year-old daughter and 7-year-old niece, were moving along the highway to Stary Oskol, where the monastery is located. They were overtaken by an Audi A8, from which machine gun fire was heard.
The investigative team that arrived at the scene found both cars with numerous bullet holes on the side of the road. There were shell casings from a Makarov pistol and a Kalashnikov assault rifle lying on the ground. A few hours later, a burnt-out Audi body was found near Meshcherinskoye Highway; there was a weapon inside, the casings of which were found by experts at the scene of Slesarev’s execution. Combing the nearby forest belt with dogs did not yield any results: the criminals were picked up by another car or they were initially traveling in two cars.
Killing out of respect
But the liquidation of the investigator of the Moscow Interregional Investigation Department for Transport of the Investigative Committee of Russia, Alexander Leonov, was ordered. His former sister-in-law wished him dead Olga Shvetsova, who worked as the prosecutor of the Iristonsky district of Vladikavkaz. Her sister was married to Leonov, but after the divorce, a conflict arose between them over the division of property worth 25 million rubles.
In August 2012, Shvetsova flew to Moscow to meet with Dzhako at the Art Hotel. She asked him to kill Leonov. The gang leader accepted the prosecutor’s request; moreover, he undertook to carry out the order for free – only out of respect for the petitioner. Jaco entrusted this case to Sonny, who approached organizing the murder of the investigator with the same responsibility as he did other tasks of the boss.
The investigation materials describe in detail at least three days when Dzhioev and his henchmen closely followed Leonov in early September, a few days after Dzhako’s conversation with prosecutor Shvetsova. Thus, on September 10, a Honda Accord appeared at least six times at the address of Leonov’s possible place of residence on Krylatskie Hills Street in Moscow – surveillance was carried out from the car.
Sonny’s team included a former employee of the Bulat special rapid response squad, a holder of the Order of Courage, Colonel Evgeny Yashkin, and a former criminal investigation officer Ruslan Yurtov. With such experienced hunters, Leonov was doomed.
Dzhioev himself, armed with a 9 mm Baikal pistol with a silent shooting device, also carried out surveillance while riding a motorcycle. He had another group in the wings in a Volkswagen Golf. They constantly changed so that the victim would not notice them.
On September 12, 2012, Leonov went home at 21:00; his accomplices who were following him twice confirmed to Dzhioev on the radio that the investigator was moving towards the Krylatsky Hills. Together with Leonov in the car was his common-law wife Tatyana Adamova, who worked as a judge in the Savelovsky District Court of Moscow. When their car approached the house, Yurtov approached him and shot Leonov several times, but did not touch his companion. Having completed the order, the killer immediately disappeared.
The investigator died on the spot before the ambulance arrived. Investigating his murder, detectives thoroughly studied his biography. Over the 38 years of his life, he managed to work as a magistrate, an investigator at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a collector and a consultant at the Annexus Bar Association. In this field, Leonov participated in several high-profile lawsuits with singer Philip Kirkorov and producer Bari Alibasov. At the time of the murder, Leonov had been working as an investigator for the Investigative Committee for only two months.
Olga Shvetsova was detained at the end of 2019 at Beslan airport. She was going to fly to Moscow, and from there to Germany, a visa was stamped in her passport. At the trial, her defense appealed to the fact that she was a victim of Dzhioev’s slander. The remaining witnesses, including Dzhako, denied knowing Shvetsova. Lawyers have repeatedly stated that Sonny’s testimony is confused and contradictory, but the court believed him and sentenced the former prosecutor to 12 years in prison for the murder of Leonov.
Pros of the deal
Dzhioev will be tried in the second case in a special manner – in this case, the court does not examine the question of the defendant’s innocence at all, but relies only on his confession. In this case, the punishment cannot exceed two-thirds of the maximum possible term under the articles of the Criminal Code imputed to him. And, what is most important for Dzhioev in his position, life imprisonment cannot be applied. Although he is accused of committing a number of serious and especially serious crimes, including leading a gang that is part of a criminal community, 17 murders, attempts, kidnapping and an attempt on the life of a law enforcement officer.
Dzhioev was sentenced in the first case to 17 years, but this term is calculated from 2015, when he was arrested in Greece. Thus, there are 10 years left of the term. Sonny expects a minimum punishment in the second case as well.
His accomplices received a couple of years more or less. In March 2016, regular OPS killer Robert Bagaev was sentenced to 22 years in a maximum security colony for 14 murders. He joined Jacko’s gang in 2006, and, like Sonny, he had his own cell. For his services, Bagaev received a thousand dollars a month, sometimes bonuses.
Another active member of the organized crime group, Alexander Staykhevich, received 18 years in a maximum security colony in August 2017 for complicity in the murders of 15 people, including two bankers. He organized the daily routine of the criminals, stored weapons and ammunition in his car, provided gang members with the necessary information about future victims, and drove accomplices to the crime scene.
The lawyer suggests that the most interesting among the crimes is the Slesarev-Plytnik case. Moreover, the investigation needs information about financial flows and their distribution after the murder of bankers. Dzhioev can provide them with this information, so it is likely that he will “remember” new episodes gradually – in exchange for concessions. Dzhioev’s testimony in the case of Shvetsova’s involvement in the murder of investigator Leonov has already shown that he violated his loyalty to the “family,” and now he will try to use the available information to his advantage by turning over his former accomplices and patron Dzhako.
Thus, in the coming years we can expect investigations into new high-profile crimes of Gagiev’s bandits. As long as law enforcement agencies need Sonny, nothing will happen to him; members of the former “family” will not get to him. But can it remain needed for decades?
