Ukrainian Police Detain Wanted Ex-Managers of Russian Company in Crimea

Police in Crimea have detained four ex-managers of the Russian industrial group Uralinvestenergo who are suspected of stealing the company’s property and are on an international wanted list, the ITAR- TASS news agency reported on 11 July, quoting the head of the public relations centre of the Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s main directorate in Crimea, Oleksandr Dombrovskyy.

The four were detained at a luxury guest house in Yevpatoria. One other suspect is still in hiding.

Dombrovskyy was quoted as saying that the four were being checked for possible involvement in criminal activity in Ukraine, and that the procedure for extraditing them to Russia would begin after these checks are completed.

The managers are accused of stealing assets worth around 150m dollars from a number of industrial plants.

Meanwhile, officers of the Crimean criminal investigation directorate in Dzhankoy have detained an alleged member of a Russian criminal organization who was on an international wanted list, the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on 11 July, quoting the public relations centre of Ukrainian Interior Ministry’s main directorate in Crimea. The detained man is suspected of several murders and rapes in Russia’s Irkutsk Region.

Two Polish citizens who were trying to smuggle 294 kilograms of amphetamine into Ukraine were detained in Ivano-Frankivsk Region on 13 July by Ukrainian border guards with the aid of colleagues from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported on 15 July, quoting the press service of the Western Regional Directorate of the State Border Service.

A court in the Crimean city of Kerch has sentenced a number of police officers to lengthy prison terms for drug trafficking, the UNIAN news agency reported on 13 July.

Crimean prosecutors reported that the gang leader was given 10 years, and the members of the gang received five and six year terms. The prosecutors accused two officers from the Lenin district police department’s anti-drugs department and a district police inspector of supplying drugs to pushers in Kerch for sale and receiving the proceeds in exchange for protection.

Officers of the SBU directorate in Odessa Region have broken up a criminal group that had been producing and selling pornographic films with the participation of minors aged 12-17 in Odessa for over a year, UNIAN reported on 9 July, quoting the directorate’s press service.

The group was allegedly led by a 40-year-old resident of Odessa with previous convictions, who rented the premises where the studio was located. The films were sold in Odessa through intermediaries. A half-hour film cost up to 2,000 dollars.

Dnipropetrovsk prosecutors have sent to court a criminal case against a female resident of Kryvyy Rih, who is accused of bringing eight young women, five of whom were minors, to Moscow where they were forced to engage in prostitution, Interfax-Ukraine reported on 11 July.

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