Uralmash organized criminal group. "Centres" and "blues"

29.07.2019

Their organized crime groups were subsequently compared more than once to Sicilian mafia “families.” The emergence of a new criminal structure, rapidly gaining strength, caused a sharp reaction from another criminal group.

Grigory and Konstantin Tsyganov

The leader of the group was a gambler and currency speculator, and the force cover, “intelligence” and “counterintelligence” brigades were former athletes, veterans of the war in Afghanistan, including the leader of the Yekaterinburg “Afghans” Viktor Kasintsev, ex-employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB.

"Centres" and "blues"

The organized crime group had its own people in the city and regional administrations, from where information was received about organizations involved in trade with foreign countries, about quotas, volumes and terms of concluded transactions. This made it possible to purposefully collect “your percentage” from concluded export-import transactions, and subsequently reach international level, supplying weapons to Hungary and participating in legal business in Belgium.

This limited their ability to penetrate big business, concentrated in Yekaterinburg. Thieves in law limited themselves to organizing the production and sale of counterfeit vodka, drug trafficking, selling stolen goods and control over some clothing markets and small commercial structures in the cities of the region.

The intersection in the city with ambitious and assertive “centers” worried me.

"War" for spheres of influence

Vagin decided to show the Tsyganovs “in their place,” and at a meeting with his older brother, he invited his competitors to recognize the priority of “centers” in the city. However, he failed to come to an agreement with the obstinate leader of the “factory workers”. This was tantamount to a declaration of war. And the first blow was dealt by yesterday’s owners of the city.

Konstantin Tsyganov became the head of the organized crime group “by right of inheritance”. A year later, the “centers” tried to commit a “double” - to remove the younger brother, but this time the attempt failed. And on October 26, 1992, Uralmash struck counter attack. In the center of Yekaterinburg, almost next to the building of the city and regional administration, the permanent boss of the “center” Vagin and three of his bodyguards were shot (the leader of the organized crime group lived in the same house with the governor).

As time passed, former Uralmash members in their “memoirs” claimed that the number of organized crime groups in those years reached two thousand people, taking into account the managers, legal advisers, lawyers and journalists who worked for the organized crime group. And they emphasized in every possible way that they prevailed over their competitors not with weapons, but because, unlike them, they abandoned primitive racketeering and developed business structures under their “roof”, invested in them and received “legitimate profit.”

Without the right to arrest

It is significant that none of the leaders and major authorities of the “Uralmash” members (except for the “financier” of the criminal community Sergei Terentyev, cousin wife of Tsyganov Sr., who spent several years in prison) was not convicted. Regarding the survivor internecine war Criminal cases were initiated several times against Tsyganov Jr., but all of them, thanks to the efforts of corrupt representatives of law enforcement agencies, were terminated “for lack of evidence of a crime.” And in 1994, Tsygankov was nevertheless arrested by the regional department for combating organized crime.

In response, the group’s militants fired at the RUBOP building with a grenade launcher to intimidate. However, the Yekaterinburg District Court did not satisfy the request of Tsyganov’s lawyers to change the preventive measure to a written undertaking not to leave the place or a cash bail. The judge who made this decision was severely beaten by unknown assailants, and the defense managed to transfer the consideration of the petition to another court in the Ural region, which released Tsyganov on bail. Soon he managed to leave Russia (several years ago the media noted that Tsyganov returned to Russia).

In a similar way he left criminal liability the head of the “special forces” of the organized crime group, Sergei Kurdyumov, who led operations to intimidate and physically eliminate members of rival groups, intractable entrepreneurs, as well as “Uralmash” members who disobeyed the leaders.

The judge of the Tagilstroevsky District Court of Nizhny Tagil, Tatyana Tyurina, with suspicious gullibility, accepted the medical report presented by Kurdyumov’s lawyers (which turned out, of course, to be purchased) that the defendant had cancer, and he was released from custody on bail, and then disappeared from the field from the point of view of law enforcement agencies.

Inverted Iceberg

After Tsyganov Jr. settled abroad, the organized crime group was headed by Alexander Khabarov, a man from the Tsyganovs’ inner circle, who was previously responsible for the “economic bloc.” By this time, the group already resembled an inverted iceberg: a significant part of its activities ended up on the surface - in semi-legal and legal business. The new leader tried to add social and political respectability to the Uralmash brand.

Thus, in 1995, the organized crime group made a financial contribution to the re-election of Eduard Rossel as governor Sverdlovsk region. A year later, Khabarov organized the “Workers’ Movement in Support of Boris Yeltsin” in the region, who ran for second seat. presidential term. Finally, in 1999, the leader of the organized crime group registered and headed as chairman the so-called Uralmash Social and Political Union.

Among the founders of the Uralmash OPS were the closest associates of the Tsyganovs, as well as Tsyganov Jr. himself, in whose hands the management of the group’s “common fund” was still in control (when in 2004 Tsyganov suddenly announced that it was now his personal money, leaders and authorities came to the decision that Khabarov insisted on, not to punish him for “ratting”).

The union, headed by Khabarov, essentially became an advisory body for managing the “empire” created by the Tsyganovs and his accomplices. In addition, the OPS has become a kind of election headquarters for the group, promoting its members to the bodies of representative power different levels, right up to the State Duma. In 2002, Khabarov himself was elected to the Yekaterinburg City Duma.

It is only known that shortly before his arrest, Khabarov initiated a meeting of the criminal authorities of the Uralmashites, Centers and Blues to discuss the decision of Moscow criminal circles to delimit spheres of influence in a new way between federal center and the Urals. At the meeting, Khabarov stated that he would not allow Caucasian authorities, led by thief in law “Grandfather Hassan,” to come to Yekaterinburg. Khabarov's death became the starting point for the disappearance of one of the most powerful criminal maps of Russia criminal groups as a whole.

Alexander and Vladimir Korotkov

Around the same years, the Ordzhonikidze district of Yekaterinburg became the cradle of another criminal group, which very soon gained notoriety as one of the most violent in the city. As it turned out later, its leaders hatched plans, no less, to oust the Uralmash and other organized crime groups of the regional center over time.

However common features With the organized crime group of the Tsyganov brothers, the new gang had little. To the fact that almost all of its members either studied at the same school or lived on the same street, we can only add that the gang was also created by siblings. It is known that Alexander and Vladimir Korotkov grew up in a family without a father, and also that the dominant figure in this criminal tandem, Alexander, born in 1975, had a frail build, wore glasses, but compensated for his low physical condition with an evil, despotic character and lust for power.

The gang members, armed with knives, began to try their hand with chaotic robberies on commercial tents. The booty - money and goods - came into hand relatively easily, but did not satisfy the “appetite” of the brothers and members of the gang, the number of which had grown to thirty people. The first funds obtained in this way were used to purchase pistols from the Izhevsk Mechanical Plant on the black market. At the same time, Korotkov Sr. insisted that everyone arm themselves using their share of the loot from the kiosks.

First blood

Soon firearms was put into action. On June 13, 1995, the Korotkovs and several gang members robbed the apartment of the Ch. spouses, shooting the owners. The reason for entering the apartment was an announcement married couple in the newspaper about the sale of fur coats. Subsequently, using the published information of citizens about the sale of valuables, the bandits committed further whole line robbery attacks on apartments. The same technique was used: at night, the robbery participants lowered themselves from the roofs on ropes and broke the glass windows. At the slightest sign of resistance from the residents, they used their weapons.

A week after the murder of Ch.’s family, gang members robbed the warehouse of the Obuvnoy Kvartal trading company on Krasnoflotsev Street in the regional center, shooting one employee of the company and seriously wounding another. And a week later, a policeman who tried to stop someone who seemed suspicious to him became a victim of the bandits. young man with a bag on his shoulders (as it turned out later, it was a member of the Korotkov gang who took valuables from the robbed apartment). The bandit threw the bag and tried to escape, but the policeman gave chase. During the pursuit, he was killed by a pistol shot.

Strangers among our own

In those days, as a rule, only “lawless men” shot at police officers without hesitation. When investigating such crimes, law enforcement agencies in the “wild nineties” were given complete carte blanche, in contrast to cases related to respectable authorities of such organized crime groups as the “Uralmash” or “central” ones, which were often slowed down by corrupt law enforcement officers. Not only detectives from the city, but also from the region, as well as employees of the Yekaterinburg division of Alpha, were sent to catch the bloody gang. But for a long time it was not possible to identify the “Korotkovites” acting haphazardly.

He personally executed another gang member, Motovilov, who, while heavily drunk, threw a grenade at a kiosk whose saleswoman allegedly spoke rudely to him (the woman died on the spot, and a little later Motovilov, along with another gang member, killed a bystander). The leader motivated the reprisal by the fact that Motovilov could “fall asleep” on them. In total, the brothers “sentenced” four accomplices and the partner of one of them in this way.

Detectives attacked the gang's "golden" trail

Until the end of the gang’s existence, the Korotkovs did not part with the idea of becoming an influential force in the criminal community of the capital of the Urals and devoted great attention gang weapons. In December 1995, the brothers decided to personally raid a gun store with several accomplices. They stopped a taxi in the city, gave the address on the outskirts, where they killed the driver and buried him in the snow. In a stolen car they drove up to gun store"Berkut" on Cosmonauts Street.

After beating the seller half to death, they took away fourteen carbines and shotguns, several pistols, knives and scopes. And the gang ended 1995 with a raid on jewelry shop"Posyltorg", where they were taken from a large number of gold items. The store security guard was wounded.

In the beginning of 1996, gang members, replacing each other, went to work almost every day, not stopping at killings, including law enforcement officers. On January 16, they raided a Levi's store in the Kirovsky district, during which a security guard, police officer Sergei Pravda, was mortally wounded (he died in the hospital after the Korotkovs were detained and managed to identify them and give testimony). Another police officer was killed during a raid on the Juice and Water store. The gang's arsenal was replenished with police service pistols.

However, the criminal investigation nearly failed: the brothers and Golenkov were stopped by police officers and asked to present documents. The bandits responded with firearms and a grenade, as a result of which one policeman was killed and three were wounded. All this happened in front of the detectives on duty in the ambush, and they began to pursue the escapers. As a result, the brothers were detained, and the “Ghoul” managed to escape after he threw a grenade in pursuit (he was arrested later).

The leader did not live to see the trial

The Korotkovs, who believed in their elusiveness, were so stunned by the arrest that they almost immediately began to give evidence, which brought 24 members of the criminal group to trial.

The first trial of members of the “gang of mad brothers,” as the group was called in the regional press, took place in the gym of the Yekaterinburg riot police three years after their capture. All this time, the investigation was collecting evidence of the guilt of each of those arrested. The volume of the criminal case amounted to 55 volumes, of which five were indictments. The jury found all the defendants guilty of participating in an organized criminal group, and also found 10 premeditated murders proven.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced Alexander Korotkov to 15 years in prison to be served in a maximum security colony, his brother Vladimir and Golenkov - 14 years, and the rest of the defendants - from 10 to 13 years. Supreme Court left the verdict unchanged. However, the convicts remained in the pre-trial detention center for another two years after this, since the court returned for further investigation the episodes related to the participation of the convicts in 4 more murders. During this time, Korotkov Sr., who at the trial promised to get even with the judge, prosecutor and jury after his release, died in a pre-trial detention center from an ischemic stroke (before that, he tried to kill her on a date with his mother because she treated his partner badly ).

The second trial in the case of the “gang of rabid brothers” took place in May 2002. The younger Korotkov, as well as Sergei Potemkin and Alexei Fedorov, were re-appeared in court on charges of several murders, and the remaining gang members acted as witnesses. The defense and the accused skillfully used the fact of the death of Alexander Korotkov, and placed all the blame for these crimes on the deceased. Ultimately, the prosecutor's office had to drop the charges against Korotkov Jr. and Fedorov, whom the court left with their previous sentences (14 and 10 years). Vitaly Golenkov was sentenced to 15 years, and Potemkin - to 14 years and 6 months.

Alexander and Sergei Larionov

In May 1995, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation announced the completion of the investigation into the case of a large organized criminal group from the Primorsky Territory. Fifteen members of the organized crime group were charged with 18 murders, two attempted murders, organizing the explosion of a residential building, kidnapping and a number of other crimes. It was reported that the leader of the group is a large entrepreneur from Vladivostok, who owns about ten companies.

In fact, there were two leaders - brothers Alexander and Sergei Larionov. They created one of the most high-tech criminal organizations, which had no analogues not only in Far East, but also in Russia.

The Larionov brothers once graduated from the Vladivostok Polytechnic Institute. At the university they were on in good standing as active social activists. Upon graduation, his older brother Alexander worked as a technologist, designer, and then as a researcher at the institute. The younger one, Sergei, was the secretary of the Komsomol committee of one of the largest enterprises in the city - production association"Vostokrybkholodflot", which included a freezing flotilla, transport vessels, coastal repair, warehouse and social base. The main events subsequently unfolded around this enterprise.

From a security cooperative to a gang

Gorbachev's perestroika, announced in the late 1980s, brought to life the rapid development of the cooperative movement. The brothers jointly organized a cooperative and began importing and selling used cars from neighboring Japan in the USSR. A year later, in addition to a company selling cars, they owned a network of parking lots. The brothers were also involved in real estate transactions.

The creation of the organized criminal group of the Larionov brothers dates back to the early 90s, when the privatization process began throughout the country state property. The brothers' gaze turned to one of the most delicious pieces of the state "pie" - PA "Vostokrybkholodflot" (later renamed "Vostoktransflot"). To implement plans to seize a controlling stake in the enterprise, the Larionovs created the Rumas security cooperative. The “personnel” composition of the organized crime group is amazing:

The Larionovs managed to attract to its activities the former senior officer of the intelligence department of the Pacific Fleet, captain of the first rank of the reserve Vladimir Poluboyarinov (he retired at 43 years old and was engaged in own business), former investigator of one of the prosecutor's offices of Vladivostok Maxim Mangutov (one of the best investigators in the region left due to low salary), a hereditary officer with a gold medal who graduated from higher education military school paratrooper Evgeny Chukalin.

Another high-ranking intelligence officer of the Pacific Fleet, Colonel Valery Zubanov, also took part in training the Rumas guards. And the rank and file of the security structure consisted of conscripts who retired from the air assault brigade of the Airborne Forces and the naval special forces brigade stationed in the region. On initial stage The “operation” to seize the brothers’ enterprise was supported by thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov (“Yaponchik”).

The Larionovs, with the help of a security unit that had spread an extensive network of agents, collected all the necessary information about the actions of competitors on the eve of the privatization of Vostokrybkholodflot, about the position taken on this issue by high-ranking officials in the regional administration, deputies, and leaders of criminal groups. In addition, the “intelligence” and “counterintelligence” of the organized crime group used special equipment that only the special services had in the country (the brothers used it to check their henchmen and a lie detector).

On the day of the auction for the privatization of the production association, Rumas employees cordoned off the building, allowing only people on the list compiled by the Larionovs. They had to purchase part of the shares, while the controlling stake obviously had to go to the brothers (a number of banks provided them with loans for this).

The war within the organized crime group and its end

One of the Primorye businessmen, Vladimir Zakharenko, tried to attract public attention to the illegal privatization of Vostokrybkholodflot. The chief was tasked with eliminating Zakharenko to the killer of the organized crime group Mikhail Sokolov. However, the attempt failed. The assassination attempt ended in failure for the organized crime group. major entrepreneur Vladimir Petrakov. They tried to blow him up in his own apartment powerful charge TNT. The businessman survived, but several residents of the house died.

At the end of 1992, the Far Eastern thieves in law decided to put the Larionovs in charge of the growing business crime boss Vasily Chekhov. However, the brothers were not going to share with anyone: the bribed police officers detained Chekhov and his assistant and handed them over to the Larionovs’ “special forces.”

The burned corpses of the authorities were discovered only after the arrest of the members of the organized crime group. The martyrology of those millionaire brothers killed by order contains many names and members of organized crime groups. On suspicion of collaboration with law enforcement agencies After a lie detector test, two people were strangled and buried at the slag dump of a thermal power plant. In the spring of 1993, Poluboyarinov and his son were killed and thrown into an old coal mine after the Larionovs received information that he was preparing to destroy them and seize control of the company into his own hands.

From that moment on, internal contradictions began to grow in the organized crime group, fueled by dissatisfaction with the payment of ordinary gang members. The head of “intelligence” Vadim Goldberg, a student of Poluboyarinov, decided with his team to destroy the owners. Larionov Sr. was the first to fall at their hands - he was taken out of the city and killed.

However younger brother, having received information that this was the work of Goldberg, with members of the organized crime group who remained loyal to him, he grabbed him and promised to save his life if he betrayed the direct kidnappers and killers of his brother. Seven gang members named by their immediate supervisor were captured and poisoned carbon dioxide in the basement. Their bodies are wrapped in fishing net, dumped on the open sea.

In January 1994, a criminal case was opened into the disappearance of several employees of the Rumas security cooperative (concerned relatives of the missing people contacted the prosecutor's office). During a search in the office of Sergei Larionov, a large amount of special equipment foreign production for intelligence activities, and then at one of his apartments - weapons, ammunition and explosives. Sergei Larionov, Goldberg, Sokolov and 9 other members of the organized crime group were arrested.

In April 1995, the investigative team completed the investigation of the case, transferring it to the Primorsky Regional Court. And on January 14, 2000, the court sentenced Goldberg and Sokolov to 15 years in prison, the rest of the gang received from 5 to 12 years. Sergei Larionov did not live to see the trial - he was killed with a sharpening blow on the way to interrogation by repeat offender Evgeniy Danilenko, nicknamed “Georges”.

The peculiarities of the structure of the Larionov organized crime group gave rise to rumors that behind its creation was Russian intelligence service. However, in the media that exploited this topic in those years, no convincing evidence in favor of the version appeared.

One of the most powerful organized crime communities (OCS) in the Urals “ Uralmash” was mainly formed in Yekaterinburg by 1991. It all started with a small team of former athletes, friends and relatives who lived in the vicinity of the legendary Uralmash plant. " Godfathers— brothers are considered the founders of the OPS Grigory and Konstantin Tsyganov. The brothers were joined by relatives, neighbors, classmates, very good acquaintances - Sergey Terentyev, Alexander Khabarov, Sergey Kurdyumov, Alexander Kruk, Sergey Vorobyov, Andrey Panpurin, Igor Mayevsky, and a couple of dozen more people.

Having taken control of the territory of their district, the Uralmashites began to expand their influence in Yekaterinburg, facing competitors in the form of the group of “centers” (who controlled the central areas of the city) and “blues” (classical criminals).

"Centers" in the late 1980s were the strongest criminal community in Yekaterinburg. In fact, it was created by a team of “space catastrophes” - card sharpers, before perestroika, they were fleecing clients in the basements of the famous restaurant “Cosmos” in Yekaterinburg. Using the security cover groups they already had, the gamblers engaged in racketeering. They had practically no competitors - the now well-known OPS Uralmash was only gaining strength, and the traditional thieves' groups(the gangs of Tryphon and Ovchina) waged a bloody war among themselves. In addition, among the organizers of the “center” there were many representatives of the Assyrian diaspora, who enjoyed the support of the famous Moscow thief in law Ded Hassan.

At the head of the center structure was Oleg Vagin. Senior Adviser of Justice, Special Investigator important matters Department for Combating Banditry of the Sverdlovsk Regional Prosecutor's Office Mikhail Milman, who at one time investigated the case of the “centres,” described him this way: “An odious personality. I have rarely met such strong personalities. This is a person who had a very strong will, knew how to subjugate others using methods of physical and psychological violence" Vagin made his initial capital by engaging in petty currency fraud at the Beryozka store and playing cards. And then the time came for cooperatives.

The Vagina brigades, which united former athletes, imposed tribute on cooperators, and threatened the intractable with arson and beatings. Then the tactics had to be changed: there were those who did not want to pay and turned to law enforcement agencies for help. Accusations of extortion emerged. Then the “vaginians” became full-fledged workers and recipients of salaries (several times higher than usual) in cooperatives. Then the feeder stopped generating income, and the cooperative movement began to decline. But law enforcement agencies have already begun to take a closer look at the “centres”, who have resorted to other ways of earning money - operations with non-ferrous and rare earth metals. There is an opportunity to buy out restaurants.

“The height of ingenuity,” says Mikhail Milman, “was the opening of the first casino in Yekaterinburg in Cosmos.” Then the disco fell into the hands of the “centers.” The now existing Globus business club was initially an association of several partnerships, led by the leader of the Ekaterinburg “Afghans” Viktor Kasintsev, representatives Grandfather Hassan- Edik Kazaryan and Garik Oganesyan - and former skater Misha Kuchin. This association crushed the city's entrepreneurs. They now have access to the city and regional administrations.”

It was even possible, apparently, to insert the vagina into one of the elite units the then Sverdlovsk administration - management foreign economic relations- your person. During a search in the premises of the Globus business club, a computer was seized, on the hard drive of which there was information about quotas and licenses for foreign economic activity. Or, to put it simply, a list of enterprises and organizations engaged in trade with foreign countries, the volume of transactions concluded, terms, etc. This data allowed the “centralists” to very purposefully demand their percentage of concluded export-import transactions. The Vagina Empire grew and “gained weight.”

It turned out to be very difficult to stop the forward movement of this group in 1992. The Sverdlovsk Organized Crime Department only monitored the situation without taking any action. Only in September, when it became clear that the activities of the Vagina group posed a certain danger to the security of the country (they reached the international level, contacted representatives international crime), an investigative and operational group was created, which included employees of the Sverdlovsk prosecutor’s office.

The peaceful showdown quickly ended and the first salvo of a full-scale gang war was heard on June 16, 1991, when Grigory Tsyganov was killed by the center’s killer through the window of his apartment.

A 12-gauge Blondeaux rifle bullet pierced his liver and he died in the ambulance. In August of the following year, his brother Konstantin was hunted with a machine gun, but he escaped from the gunfire.

It can be assumed that if this attempt had not failed, many of the “centers” would have remained unharmed. But they didn’t stay - the Uralmash group struck back. Fighting were carried out using machine guns, explosives, machine guns and grenade launchers. For almost two years the city smelled of gunpowder and blood. In Russia then, for the first time, they started talking about organized crime taking on the division of spheres of influence. Explosions, shots and murders in 1992-1994. became a fairly commonplace occurrence in Yekaterinburg, and the city itself laid claim to the title of the criminal capital of Russia. The competitors of the current organized crime group departed to another world not only in the Sverdlovsk region - they were killed in Moscow, Voronezh, Kyiv and Budapest.

Was liquidated on October 26, 1992 leader“center” Oleg Vagin. He, along with three bodyguards, were shot at noon from machine guns in the city center, right in the courtyard of the high-rise building in which Governor E. Rossel lived, and in which Vagin himself bought an apartment shortly before his death. Three submachine gunners first put their victims on the ground in bursts, and then calmly, with control shots, finished off the lying ones. There were 20 wounds on Vagin’s body. The shooters were immediately picked up by a car standing ready, which was soon found abandoned along with weapons, clothes, and masks.

And this is possibly Oleg Vagin’s father. The photo shows that there is a monument to the left of the crucifix. It's probably this one.

An entrepreneur who started his business in Sverdlovsk in the late 80s says:

— My father and I created a cooperative. Our top team was the Centers, simply because my classmate was their foreman. Someone still had to pay. We had no problems with either the Blues or the Uralmashevskys until they killed Vagin. And soon my classmate disappeared somewhere. One day the boys come to us and say:
- We are from Uralmash, you will pay us.

I blurted out something about my roof, like, deal with them. Without talking they punched me in the face and said as they left:
- We've already dealt with those.

We quickly wrapped things up and moved away from Sverdlovsk.

Vagin’s murder did not stop the investigation. Oganesyan and Kuchin were detained. They were charged, including with extortion. Already at the stage preliminary investigation Difficulties arose in the form of appeals and changes in the preventive measure through the court. The main participants in the case were then released on bail. And in vain - Uralmash continued to purge the bandit leaders: On February 13, at about 14.00, Kuchin left his mansion on Volgogradskaya Street without security and began to start his own BMW. At this time, an unknown person fired a burst of fire from a VAZ-2109 car passing by. automatic weapons. Kuchin died on the spot from gunshot wounds to the head.

And in August, Valiev, one of the leaders of the “centers,” was also shot at the Golden Pegasus casino.

It was no secret to the “centers” who exactly was hunting them. But, knowing those who ordered the destruction of their leaders, they did not know the perpetrators - the now convicted killer -Sergei Kurdyumov's group.

However, this did not stop the surviving “centers” from hastily preparing their own special forces to fight their opponents using the same methods. One of the last influential “centers”, former all-Russian boxer Nikolai Shirokov, decided that the forceful confrontation should be dealt with by people who had already proven themselves in criminal disputes - the group of Georgy Arkhipov, in which different time included up to two dozen militants. In 1993, in response to the arrest of one of the leaders of the Uralmash» Konstantin Tsyganov bandits They fired grenade launchers at the buildings of the RUBOP and the regional administration.

Meanwhile, investigative actions against Tsyganov reached a dead end. Witnesses who intended to testify against him disappeared without a trace. One of the investigators who led his case recalls: there was a witness who volunteered to come to his home and tell the whole truth about the gang. But on the way to the house he was shot by a sniper. In the end, the case was brought to court, but the unexpected happened: the servant of Themis, on whom the fate of the authority depended, released him on bail, setting a ridiculous amount for bandits of this level, equivalent to the cost of two Zhiguli cars. Of course, Tsyganov immediately disappeared.

However, luck did not turn away from the operatives either: by order of the leadership of the OPS, an operation was developed to eliminate the thief in law Timuri Mirzoev, nicknamed “Timur” - his relationship with the Uralmash people did not work out. Three of Kurdyumov's special forces went to the house where he lived to mount an improvised explosive device near his apartment. But it was triggered involuntarily: one of the killers died on the spot, another escaped, the third, Oleg Zagorulko, was wounded and placed in a special hospital. His interrogations began, and little by little he began to testify. It was Zagorulko who was involved in the shelling of the buildings of the RUBOP and the regional administration.

And although Zagorulko was guarded by employees of the Alpha unit, he still disappeared from the special hospital. There can be little doubt that the captured killer he was kidnapped and probably killed by his own colleagues from the organized crime group.

He was missing for 16 years, hiding in Bulgaria. He managed to build a business there worth millions of euros, but he quarreled with the son of a government official.

One of the founders and leaders of the Uralmash group, Konstantin Tsyganov, returned to Russia - he lives in Moscow, runs his own business and almost does not communicate with his Yekaterinburg friends. He returned - not on a “white horse”, without fanfare; the federal and local media did not notice this. It turns out that this spring Tsyganov and his business partner Andrei Panpurin were expelled from Bulgaria, recognizing that they pose a threat to national security republics. In fact, the Sverdlovsk residents simply quarreled with the son of one of the major Bulgarian officials and were forced to leave the country, where they were left with property worth millions of euros. In Russia, as it turned out, no one was waiting for Tsyganov: neither his old Yekaterinburg acquaintances who had been running a legal business for a long time, nor the law enforcement agencies that closed his criminal case many years ago.

The message about the expulsion of Konstantin Tsyganov and his partner Andrei Panpurin from Bulgaria was published only by news sites in that country. In Russia, the event went virtually unnoticed. “It took the Bulgarian and Russian sides about one year to deal with the extradition of Konstantin Tsyganov, considered the leader and founder, who, under the protection of the Bulgarian special services, was sent to Moscow, where he was handed over Russian authorities“- reported the website “NewsBG.Ru” in April of this year.

The order for the extradition of Tsyganov and his colleague Andrei Panpurin was signed on March 18, 2010, by the then chairman of the state agency National Security (DANS) Tsvetlin Yovchev as “representing a serious threat to national security.” In March 2010, due to incorrect data submitted during naturalization, Tsyganov was deprived of Bulgarian citizenship.

For about a year, from March 2010 to April 2011, Tsyganov and Panpurin were in a “temporary accommodation house” for foreigners in Busmantsi. According to unofficial information, throughout the entire time they refused to talk to government officials and hid their names. Also, Tsyganov did not have any documents. Russia and Bulgaria had to prove his identity, and Moscow prepared all the documents for extradition. Despite the fact that since 1994 a criminal case was opened against Tsyganov in Russia, in 2001 he received Bulgarian citizenship. For about 10 years, he, together with his friend Andrei Panpurin, was engaged in large-scale construction at ski and sea resorts, purchasing a hockey club and developing a pig farm, the site writes.

The Vedomosti newspaper previously reported on Tsyganov’s business in Bulgaria in somewhat more detail. She wrote that, according to information from the Bulgarian Trade Register as of May 2010, Tsyganov is listed as the owner of the Bulgarian companies Laudis Holding Group (66%, his contribution is 2.5 million euros), Laudis Building and KNT. His partner in Laudis Holding (34%, contribution - 1.2 million euros) is Panpurin. The holding includes eight companies that are mainly engaged in real estate projects. The Laudis group of companies has invested in residential and commercial real estate in Sofia and other cities in Bulgaria.

The group began the most famous project in 2007 - the construction of the resort town of Costa del Croco near Tsarevo in the south Black Sea coast Bulgaria. The seaside project includes a hotel, a residential complex, a shopping and business center, 12 swimming pools, cafes, fitness centers, gyms, a beauty salon and shops, as well as a yacht pier. All this on 85 hectares. The real estate was going to be sold, including to clients from Russia. But a crisis occurred, and construction stopped in 2009, the publication wrote. As follows from the website eurostate.ru, 927 apartments and 30 family houses on stilts in the Costa del Croco are valued at approximately 80 million euros. Judging by the Costa del Croco project website, the complex was supposed to be completed in March 2011, however latest photos from construction dated 2009.

In 2010, Laudis Property, owned by Panpurin, judging by the advertisements on the Real Estate Abroad and in Russia portal, sold projects in Bulgaria: a building in the center of Sofia for a casino (area - 3500 sq. m.) for $3.5 million, retail space in center of Sofia (1500 sq. m.) with an approved project for the construction of a casino for 4.35 million euros and another building by the sea in Varna (8000 sq. m.) for 7.5 million euros.

One of Tsyganov’s friends, at the request of the media, recalled how events unfolded after Konstantin’s departure from Russia and where the Bulgarian business came from. “After the murder of Grigory Tsyganov in 1991, his brother Kostya became the leader and face of the group. In 1993, during one of the gatherings of the “Uralmash” and “Center” in the Golden Pegasus casino, shooting began, and one of the leaders of the “Center”, Flarit Valiev, was killed. Until now, no one knows exactly whose bullet killed Valiev. Investigators interviewed everyone present, but in the end they made the leader, Konstantin Tsyganov, accused in a criminal case. Then he decided to leave the country.”

Having gone on the run, Tsyganov changed several countries, lived for some time in Israel, after which he settled in Bulgaria. The former director of the Uralmash “European-Asian Company” Andrei Panpurin, who became Tsyganov’s “right hand,” also came there with him. “Tsyganov built a house in Bulgaria, some kind of hotel in the mountains and went into business. Initially, it was a network of pawnshops, but, in fact, under the guise of pawnshops they provided banking services,” says our interlocutor. From his words it can be understood that Tsyganov and Panpurin simply lent money to Bulgarian businessmen, accepting real estate and other property as collateral. And since the conditions for repaying loans were quite harsh and no one wanted to get involved with Russian businessmen, soon two “Uralmash” members, by seizing collateral, collected a decent property base, which became the basis of their legal business.

There is also a version that the business of Tsyganov and Panpurin grew so quickly because they had the funds of the entire group at their disposal. “Tsyganov was considered the holder of the Uralmash “common fund”, only about $65 million, with this money he developed his business in Bulgaria. When members of the community needed money and they turned to him, Tsyganov began to evade paying the funds, made it clear that they were invested in the business, he needed some kind of guarantee of return, etc., recalls another community member. “After that, many stopped communicating with him, and the question of the “common fund” was no longer raised.”

As they say, Tsyganov and Panpurin’s problems in Bulgaria began after they lent a decent amount to the son of one of the major Bulgarian officials, says our source. When he couldn't pay back the funds and they took the deposit, he turned to his family for help. Government mechanisms turned on, and Tsyganov and Panpurin, who had been working quietly in Bulgaria for ten years, were suddenly declared to be the Russian mafia, threatening the country’s national security. Ultimately, Tsyganov was expelled to Russia, but this cannot be called extradition - Russian law enforcement agencies no longer have any claims against the entrepreneur; the criminal case against him was closed back in 1996. Andrei Panpurin left for Canada, where he has a house. “Now Konstantin Tsyganov lives in Moscow and is engaged in business,” the narrator ends the story. According to him, Tsyganov has not been in contact with Yekaterinburg residents for a very long time, the last time was seven or eight years ago.

After the death of Alexander Khabarov, the Uralmash community as a single structure ceased to exist, its representatives split up and conduct legal business, Tsyganov has no friends left in the Urals, so he has no point in returning to Yekaterinburg, says a source familiar with the situation.

Brothers Grigory (portrait) and Konstantin Tsyganov

At the end of the 80s, law enforcement agencies of Sverdlovsk (after 1991 - Yekaterinburg) recorded the activities of a previously unknown criminal group. The “genealogy” of the organized crime group became known later: its core consisted of people from the Ordzhonikidze district, where the Uralmash plant was located. Many of them were connected by schooling, neighborhood or family ties, and the unifying force of the “Uralmash” members were the brothers Grigory and Konstantin Tsyganov (their organized crime group was subsequently more than once compared to the Sicilian mafia “families”). The emergence of a new criminal structure, rapidly gaining strength, caused a sharp reaction from another criminal group.

Grigory and Konstantin Tsyganov

The most influential criminal force at that time was an organized crime group, widely known under the ambiguous name “central”: it captured the “citadel” of the city - the central districts, and it had no noticeable rivals. The “godfathers” of the group at one time included representatives of the Assyrian diaspora, who enjoyed the support of the Moscow thief in law Aslan Usoyan (“Grandfather Hasan”). The leader of the group was gambler and currency speculator Oleg Vagin, and the force cover, “intelligence” and “counterintelligence” brigades were former athletes, veterans of the war in Afghanistan, including the leader of the Yekaterinburg “Afghans” Viktor Kasintsev, ex-employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the KGB .

"Centres" and "blues"

The group controlled a network of shopping and purchasing complexes, clothing markets, cafes, restaurants and hotels, a casino and a business club. In addition, the leaders of the organized criminal group were the founders or managers of a number of commercial structures in the region. The military-industrial complex of Yekaterinburg and part of the metallurgical production also came under their influence. The organized crime group had its own people in the city and regional administrations, from where information was received about organizations involved in trade with foreign countries, about quotas, volumes and terms of concluded transactions. This made it possible to purposefully collect “their percentage” from concluded export-import transactions, and subsequently reach the international level, supplying weapons to Hungary and participating in legal business in Belgium.

The community of orthodox criminals, which operated in the region in those same years under the supervision of four thieves in law, did not represent serious competition for the “centers.” The “Blues,” who got their name because of the abundance of tattoos on their bodies, slowly overcame the inertia of thieves’ traditions, which imposed a ban on work and cooperation with representatives of the authorities and law enforcement agencies. This limited their ability to penetrate big business concentrated in Yekaterinburg. Thieves in law limited themselves to organizing the production and sale of counterfeit vodka, drug trafficking, selling stolen goods and control over some clothing markets and small commercial structures in the cities of the region.

The intersection in the city with the ambitious and assertive “Uralmash” “centers” worried.

"War" for spheres of influence

On June 16, 1991, a center sniper killed Grigory Tsyganov from an ambush through the illuminated window of his house. An experienced gambler and psychologist, Vagin, even when meeting with Tsyganov Sr., noted his charismatic character, and after a successful attempt on the leader’s life, he hoped that the organized crime group he created would disintegrate. However, despite the fact that the “factory” group lasted only two years, it managed to achieve high “unsinkability”. Konstantin Tsyganov became the head of the organized crime group “by right of inheritance”. A year later, the “centers” tried to commit a “double” - to remove their younger brother, but this time the attempt failed. And on October 26, 1992, the Uralmash team struck back. In the center of Yekaterinburg, almost next to the building of the city and regional administration, the permanent boss of the “center” Vagin and three of his bodyguards were shot (the leader of the organized crime group lived in the same house with the governor).

Both sides suffered losses, but victory in the criminal war ultimately went to the Uralmash team, who ousted the once powerful competitor from the best regional “lands.” According to law enforcement agencies, members of this group established about two hundred different companies and a dozen banks, and also had “shares” in another 90 companies throughout the country and abroad. As time passed, former Uralmash members in their “memoirs” claimed that the number of organized crime groups in those years reached two thousand people, taking into account the managers, legal advisers, lawyers and journalists who worked for the organized crime group. And they emphasized in every possible way that they prevailed over their competitors not with weapons, but because, unlike them, they abandoned primitive racketeering and developed business structures under their “roof”, invested in them and received “legitimate profits.”

Without the right to arrest

It is significant that none of the leaders and major authorities of the Uralmashites (except for the “financier” of the criminal community Sergei Terentyev, the cousin of Tsyganov Sr.’s wife, who spent several years in prison) was convicted. Criminal cases were initiated several times against Tsyganov Jr., who survived the internecine war, but all of them, thanks to the efforts of corrupt law enforcement officials, were terminated “for lack of evidence of a crime.” And in 1994, Tsygankov was nevertheless arrested by the regional department for combating organized crime. In response, the group’s militants fired at the RUBOP building with a grenade launcher to intimidate. However, the Verkhne-Isetsky District Court of Yekaterinburg did not satisfy the request of Tsyganov’s lawyers to change the preventive measure to a written undertaking not to leave the place or a cash bail. The judge who made this decision was severely beaten by unknown assailants, and the defense managed to transfer the consideration of the petition to another court in the Ural region, which released Tsyganov on bail. Soon he managed to leave Russia (several years ago the media noted that Tsyganov returned to Russia).

In a similar way, the head of the “special forces” of the organized crime group, Sergei Kurdyumov, who led operations to intimidate and physically eliminate members of rival groups, intractable entrepreneurs, as well as “Uralmash” members who disobeyed the leaders, escaped criminal responsibility. The judge of the Tagilstroevsky District Court of Nizhny Tagil, Tatyana Tyurina, with suspicious gullibility, accepted the medical report presented by Kurdyumov’s lawyers (which turned out, of course, to be purchased) that the defendant had cancer, and he was released from custody on bail, and then disappeared from the field from the point of view of law enforcement agencies.

Inverted Iceberg

Thus, in 1995, the organized crime group made a financial contribution to the re-election of Eduard Rossel to the post of governor of the Sverdlovsk region. A year later, Khabarov organized the “Workers’ Movement in Support of Boris Yeltsin” in the region, who was running for a second presidential term. Finally, in 1999, the leader of the organized crime group registered and headed as chairman the so-called Uralmash Social and Political Union. Among the founders of OPS "Uralmash" were the closest associates of the Tsyganovs, Andrei Panpurin and Igor Mayevsky, as well as Tsyganov Jr. himself, in whose hands the management of the group's "common fund" was still in control (when in 2004 Tsyganov suddenly announced that these were now his personal money, leaders and authorities came to a decision, which Khabarov insisted on, not to punish him for “ratting”).

The establishment of the Uralmash OPS was the last act of legitimization of the Uralmash members, but such a transformation did not deceive anyone - unofficially, the abbreviation of the union was deciphered by many as an “organized criminal community.” The founders of the OPS included owners and directors of large enterprises, funds, and businessmen. The union, headed by Khabarov, essentially became an advisory body for managing the “empire” created by the Tsyganovs and his accomplices. In addition, the OPS has become a kind of election headquarters for the group, promoting its members to representative authorities at various levels, right up to the State Duma. In 2002, Khabarov himself was elected to the Yekaterinburg City Duma.

On December 15, 2004, Khabarov was unexpectedly arrested. He was charged under Article 179 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Forcing to complete a transaction or refusal to complete one). And on January 27 of the following year, Khabarov was found hanged in a jail cell. Whether it was suicide or murder remains a mystery. It is only known that shortly before his arrest, Khabarov initiated a meeting of the criminal authorities of the Uralmashites, Centers and Blues to discuss the decision of Moscow criminal circles to delimit spheres of influence between the federal center and the Urals in a new way. At the meeting, Khabarov stated that he would not allow Caucasian authorities led by thief in law “Grandfather Hassan” to come to Yekaterinburg. Khabarov’s death became the starting point for the disappearance of one of the most powerful criminal groups as a single whole from the criminal map of Russia.

Alexander and Vladimir Korotkov

However, the new gang had few similarities with the organized crime group of the Tsyganov brothers. To the fact that almost all of its members either studied at the same school or lived on the same street, we can only add that the gang was also created by siblings. It is known that Alexander and Vladimir Korotkov grew up in a family without a father, and also that the dominant figure in this criminal tandem, Alexander, born in 1975, had a frail build, wore glasses, but compensated for his low physical condition with an evil, despotic character and lust for power.

First blood

Soon the firearms were put into use. On June 13, 1995, the Korotkovs and several gang members robbed the apartment of the Ch. spouses, shooting the owners. The reason for entering the apartment was an advertisement of a couple in the newspaper about the sale of a fur coat. Subsequently, using the published information from citizens about the sale of valuables, the bandits committed a number of robberies on apartments. The same technique was used: at night, the robbery participants lowered themselves from the roofs on ropes and broke the glass windows. At the slightest sign of resistance from the residents, they used their weapons.

A week after the murder of Ch.’s family, gang members robbed the warehouse of the Obuvnoy Kvartal trading company on Krasnoflotsev Street in the regional center, shooting one employee of the company and seriously wounding another. And a week later, a policeman became a victim of the bandits, who tried to stop a young man with a bag on his shoulders who seemed suspicious to him (as it turned out later, he was a member of the Korotkov gang who had taken valuables from a robbed apartment). The bandit threw the bag and tried to escape, but the policeman gave chase. During the pursuit, he was killed by a pistol shot.

Strangers among our own

In those days, as a rule, only “lawless men” shot at police officers without hesitation. When investigating such crimes, law enforcement agencies in the “roaring nineties” were given complete carte blanche, in contrast to cases involving respectable authorities of such organized crime groups as the “Uralmash” or “central” ones, which were often slowed down by corrupt law enforcement officers. Not only detectives from the city, but also from the region, as well as employees of the Yekaterinburg division of Alpha, were sent to catch the bloody gang. But it took a long time to identify the Korotkovites acting haphazardly.

Meanwhile, the gang was noted for a number of murders in its ranks. After robbing a warehouse with shoes, the Korotkovs instructed a certain Dagaev to sell a batch of sneakers. Later, having suspected Dagaev of concealing part of the money for selling shoes, Alexander Korotkov immediately dealt with him. He personally executed another gang member, Motovilov, who, while heavily drunk, threw a grenade at a kiosk whose saleswoman allegedly spoke rudely to him (the woman died on the spot, and a little later Motovilov, along with another gang member, killed a bystander). The leader motivated the reprisal by the fact that Motovilov could “fall asleep” them. In total, the brothers “sentenced” four accomplices and the partner of one of them in this way.

Detectives attacked the gang's "golden" trail

Until the end of the gang’s existence, the Korotkovs did not part with the idea of becoming an influential force in the criminal community of the capital of the Urals and paid great attention to arming the gang. In December 1995, the brothers decided to personally raid a gun store with several accomplices. They stopped a taxi in the city, gave the address on the outskirts, where they killed the driver and buried him in the snow. In a stolen car, they drove up to the Berkut weapons store on Cosmonauts Street. After beating the seller half to death, they took away fourteen carbines and shotguns, several pistols, knives and scopes. And the gang ended 1995 with a raid on the Posyltorg jewelry store, from where they took away a large amount of gold items. The store security guard was wounded.

In the beginning of 1996, gang members, replacing each other, went to work almost every day, not stopping at killings, including law enforcement officers. On January 16, they raided the Levi's store in the Kirovsky district, during which a security guard, police officer Sergei Pravda, was mortally wounded (he died in the hospital after the Korotkovs were detained and managed to identify them and give testimony). Another police officer was killed during a raid on the Juice and Water store. The gang's arsenal was replenished with police service pistols.

On January 23, bandits robbed another jewelry store, killing a security guard. Two days later, the Korotkovs, as well as a member of their gang, Vitaly Golenkov, nicknamed “Ghoul,” went to one of the resellers of “scrap gold” at the Tagansky Ryad market, not suspecting that they would be ambushed by operatives there. However, the criminal investigation nearly failed: the brothers and Golenkov were stopped by police officers and asked to present documents. The bandits responded with firearms and a grenade, as a result of which one policeman was killed and three were wounded. All this happened in front of the detectives on duty in the ambush, and they began to pursue the escapers. As a result, the brothers were detained, and the “Ghoul” managed to escape after he threw a grenade in pursuit (he was arrested later).

The leader did not live to see the trial

The Korotkovs, who believed in their elusiveness, were so stunned by the arrest that they almost immediately began to give evidence, which brought 24 members of the criminal group to trial.

The Sverdlovsk Regional Court sentenced Alexander Korotkov to 15 years in prison to be served in a maximum security colony, his brother Vladimir and Golenkov - 14 years, and the rest of the defendants - from 10 to 13 years. The Supreme Court upheld the verdict. However, the convicts remained in the pre-trial detention center for another two years after this, since the court returned for further investigation the episodes related to the participation of the convicts in 4 more murders. During this time, Korotkov Sr., who at the trial promised to get even with the judge, prosecutor and jury after his release, died in a pre-trial detention center from an ischemic stroke (before that, he tried to kill her on a date with his mother because she treated his partner badly ).

The second trial in the case of the “gang of mad brothers” took place in May 2002. The younger Korotkov, as well as Sergei Potemkin and Alexei Fedorov, were re-appeared in court on charges of several murders, and the remaining gang members acted as witnesses. The defense and the accused skillfully used the fact of the death of Alexander Korotkov, and placed all the blame for these crimes on the deceased. Ultimately, the prosecutor's office had to drop the charges against Korotkov Jr. and Fedorov, whom the court left with their previous sentences (14 and 10 years). Vitaly Golenkov was sentenced to 15 years, and Potemkin - to 14 years and 6 months.

Alexander and Sergei Larionov

In fact, there were two leaders - brothers Alexander and Sergei Larionov. They created one of the most high-tech criminal organizations, which had no analogues not only in the Far East, but also in Russia.

The Larionov brothers once graduated from the Vladivostok Polytechnic Institute. At the university they were in good standing as active social activists. Upon graduation, his older brother Alexander worked as a technologist, designer, and then as a researcher at the institute. The youngest, Sergei, was the secretary of the Komsomol committee of one of the largest enterprises in the city - the Vostokrybkholodflot production association, which included a freezing flotilla, transport ships, coastal repair, warehouse and social base. The main events subsequently unfolded around this enterprise.

From a security cooperative to a gang

The creation of the organized criminal group of the Larionov brothers dates back to the early 90s, when the process of privatization of state property began throughout the country. The brothers' gaze turned to one of the tastiest pieces of the state "pie" - PA "Vostokrybkholodflot" (later renamed "Vostoktransflot"). To implement plans to seize a controlling stake in the enterprise, the Larionovs created the Rumas security cooperative. The "personnel" composition of the organized crime group is amazing: the Larionovs managed to attract to its activities a former senior officer of the intelligence department of the Pacific Fleet, captain of the first rank of the reserve Vladimir Poluboyarinov (he retired at 43 and was engaged in his own business), a former investigator of one of the prosecutor's offices of Vladivostok Maxim Mangutov (one of the best Sledakov of the region left due to low salary), a hereditary officer with a gold medal who graduated from the Higher Military School, paratrooper Evgeny Chukalin.

Another high-ranking intelligence officer of the Pacific Fleet, Colonel Valery Zubanov, also took part in training the Rumas guards. And the rank and file of the security structure consisted of conscripts who retired from the air assault brigade of the Airborne Forces and the naval special forces brigade stationed in the region. At the initial stage of the “operation” to seize the enterprise, the brothers were supported by thief in law Vyacheslav Ivankov (“Yaponchik”).

The war within the organized crime group and its end

One of the Primorye businessmen, Vladimir Zakharenko, tried to attract public attention to the illegal privatization of Vostokrybkholodflot. The main killer of the organized crime group, Mikhail Sokolov, was entrusted with eliminating Zakharenko. However, the attempt failed. The attempt on the life of major businessman Vladimir Petrakov also ended in failure for the organized crime group. They tried to blow him up in his own apartment with a powerful TNT charge. The businessman survived, but several residents of the house died.

At the end of 1992, the Far Eastern thieves in law decided to appoint crime boss Vasily Chekhov as the “curator” of the Larionovs’ expanding business. However, the brothers were not going to share with anyone: bribed police officers detained Chekhov and his assistant and handed them over to the Larionovs’ “special forces.” The burned corpses of the authorities were discovered only after the arrest of the members of the organized crime group. The martyrology of those millionaire brothers killed by order contains many names and members of organized crime groups. On suspicion of cooperation with law enforcement agencies, after a lie detector test, two people were strangled and buried at the slag dump of a thermal power plant. In the spring of 1993, Poluboyarinov and his son were killed and thrown into an old coal mine after the Larionovs received information that he was preparing to destroy them and seize control of the company into his own hands.

From that moment on, internal contradictions began to grow in the organized crime group, fueled by dissatisfaction with the payment of ordinary gang members. The head of "intelligence" Vadim Goldberg, a student of Poluboyarinov, decided with his team to destroy the owners. Larionov Sr. was the first to fall at their hands - he was taken out of the city and killed. However, the younger brother, having received information that this was the work of Goldberg, with the members of the organized crime group who remained loyal to him, captured him and promised to save his life if he betrayed the direct kidnappers and killers of his brother. Seven members of the gang, named by their immediate leader, were captured and poisoned with carbon dioxide in the basement. Their bodies, wrapped in a fishing net, were dumped on the open sea.

In January 1994, a criminal case was opened into the disappearance of several employees of the Rumas security cooperative (concerned relatives of the missing people contacted the prosecutor's office). During the search, a large amount of special foreign-made equipment for intelligence activities was found in Sergei Larionov’s office, and then weapons, ammunition and explosives were found in one of his apartments. Sergei Larionov, Goldberg, Sokolov and 9 other members of the organized crime group were arrested. In April 1995, the investigative team completed its investigation of the case, transferring it to the Primorsky Regional Court. And on January 14, 2000, the court sentenced Goldberg and Sokolov to 15 years in prison, the rest of the gang received from 5 to 12 years. Sergei Larionov did not live to see the trial - he was killed with a sharpening blow on the way to interrogation by repeat offender Evgeniy Danilenko, nicknamed “Georges”.

The peculiarities of the structure of the Larionov organized crime group gave rise to rumors that the Russian special service was behind its creation. However, in the media that exploited this topic in those years, no convincing evidence in favor of the version appeared.