Andrei (hereinafter the names of the two main characters are changed. - RT ) in life was initially unlucky. An alcoholic mother initially periodically disappeared. And she finally abandoned her son when he was not even 14 years old. The last time he saw his father was three years. But grandparents who took Andrei to be raised are very worthy people. They have a spacious three-story house with a fireplace, 100 km from St. Petersburg. Big natured dog, fluffy cat. Cozy, organized life.
Already under the supervision of grandparents in 2018, Andrei graduated from nine classes of a local school, entered the culinary college. True, not at 16, but at 17 - in the primary grades he remained in his second year. According to the grandmother, because of the mother. For some time he was registered with the commission on juvenile affairs: the usual youthful story - he rode a moped without a license.
“He has been fond of motorcycles for a long time,” grandmother Valentina Alexandrovna notes in a conversation with RT. “They repaired the whole village.” Golden hands. ”
In her opinion, the child’s problems - that is what she calls an adult grandson already - started after entering the technical school. The educational institution is in the neighboring town.
- Valentina Aleksandrovna, the grandmother of the person involved in the sale of counterfeit banknotes
- © RT / Alexey Boyarsky
Every day you can’t run into too much - grandparents rented an apartment for Andrey for 10 thousand rubles a month. They paid for themselves, as well as in general all living expenses: the grandfather gave his grandson his credit card.
“It seemed convenient - I get messages about his spending,” he explains in a conversation with RT.
As they recall now, they decided for a long time: to continue their studies or to first serve in the army. Would choose a service, maybe everything would have turned out differently. And so the "child" became as if independent. He invited his girlfriend, whom he met at school, to live together. Tried to work in a car wash. Began to use soft drugs. Nevertheless, he finished the first year of study without tails - he switched to the second year. The holidays have come. And then Andrei made friends with Maxim, who in the summer lived in the same village with his grandmother.
- Maxim, one of the arrested distributors of counterfeit bills
- © RT / Dmitry Belyansky
The guys have a lot in common. Maxim is also 18. Mother died. He lived with his father, then with his grandmother. He spent his free time on the football field. He studied at a car mechanic at the Polytechnic Lyceum, but after the second year he was expelled for poor progress. He tried to work with his father (that welder). He planned to recover at the lyceum this fall. In the meantime, hanging out together, fiddling with motorcycles. To the extent possible, they earned money in their village in areas: to whom to cut grass, to whom to cut trees. And, alas, they dabbled together in MDMA, known as ecstasy.
"Verified site"
The old pre-trial detention center No. 6 in the village of Gorelovo, Leningrad Region, more resembles a zone than a prison: people under investigation are kept in one-story barracks-cells. In each of more than a hundred people. The tuberculosis unit and the investigative building look modern - cameras for interrogations and meetings with lawyers. Maxim has already been taken to a cell with a table screwed to the floor and two stools, as well as a convoy call button. Andrei is waiting in line for an interview in the “glass” - something like the “monkey” of the police department.
“Two months are already here,” Maxim notes in a conversation with RT. - The academic year started on September 2 - I was going to come to college and start again from the second year. But on September 1 we were detained, and on the 3rd we were appointed a preventive measure. ”
Just a young guy. It seems to not even shave yet. What was in prison, realized only three weeks later - at first everything seemed like a bad dream.
According to friends, over the summer they both squandered about 150-200 thousand rubles.
“I have a card on which a pension for the loss of a breadwinner is dripping,” says Maxim. - My father and I did not touch this money, they were intended at the time of returning from the army. And I could leave right this fall if I hadn’t succeeded with my studies. ”
About 100 thousand rubles were spent on this card. The rest were taken from Andrei’s credit card and borrowed from a microfinance organization.
- Andrey, one of the arrested distributors of counterfeit notes
- © RT / Dmitry Belyansky
“Online lending,” Andrei explains in a conversation with RT, on whom these loans are arranged. “You send a photo with a passport in your hands - you get money.”
The amount went to motorcycle parts, restaurant bars, ecstasy. They took a little, all the time it seemed that they would be able to earn and report. But labor on the sites brought in force of 2 thousand rubles a day. That's when the idea came to mind to do fake money. According to Andrei, a friend told him about this a couple of years ago. Yes, and Maxim read about this in VKontakte.
“This is the same darknet store where drugs are sold. Verified site. You choose what you need, will be delivered with the same bookmark. We bought ten fake five-thousandth bills for a trial of 22 thousand real rubles, ”Andrei says.
Externally, the banknotes did not differ from the genuine ones: there were protective thread-strips, watermarks were visible. That's just the paper to the touch a little different from Goznakovskaya. For more or less approximate tactile sensations and to give a crunch and brilliance in the accompanying instructions, it was recommended to cover the purchased fakes with nail polish. Friends were going to exchange-exchange in small country shops where there are no electronic authentication devices.
“The instructions said that they will accept ATMs of the old standard. Like it or not, they did not check. It is necessary to travel through the villages, look for such. And we needed to quickly, ”explains Andrey.
Caught in two days
The site did not disappoint - in the indicated place in the area of one of the last metro stations in St. Petersburg there really was a bookmark.
“They turned around, looked at the banknotes and, without even varnishing, immediately went to sell to the nearest tobacco shops. But there they did not take this money. We went down to the subway, where there was also a store. They accepted it, ”says Maxim.
The remaining notes were varnished and exchanged at tobacco shops. They simply departed by train from their village for several stations, went out to buy cigarette lighters. Delivery - about 4.5 thousand, but already real rubles. We went with a hare - ran from the control conductors. And at some point they decided to try to buy tickets for the same fake five-thousandths, fortunately the conductor does not have authentication devices on the train. Happened.
“After that, they began to take it on the trains,” recalls Maxim.
The first purchase of tickets was made on August 29. On that day, they sold two bills in electric trains. The next day - another one. And already on September 1, Andrei and Maxim came with searches.
“In the evening (August 29th - RT ) I received money from traveling cashiers,” says Raisa Davidyuk, ticket cashier at the Tosno railway station in a conversation with RT. - The next five-thousandth bill seemed somehow not so. Too slippery to the touch. ”
The cashier passed the banknote through the detector - he was beeping. I looked in the ultraviolet: neither the coat of arms, nor the special strip were highlighted - just a white spot.
All traveling cashiers are equipped with video recorders. When in doubt about the authenticity of the money received, note number of notes and the exact time of their receipt. One of the conductors made such a record right in front of Maxim and Andrey. The rest may also have recorded. Using the video recorded the faces of potential criminals. Modern means of tracking in the city made it possible to identify them almost instantly.
“We established their names, actual place of residence, places of attraction - clubs where they go to drink, a circle of relatives and close friends,” said Igor Stepanov, deputy head of the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption of the St. Petersburg Linear Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Transport.
According to him, the guys obviously did not expect such an outcome - they were terribly surprised that they were found.
- Igor Stepanov, Deputy Head of the Department of Economic Crimes, St. Petersburg Linear Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Transport
- © RT / Alexey Boyarsky
“We did not see any particular risks,” Andrei explains in the pre-trial detention center. “Even if you had caught the hand with this bill, you can always say that I picked it up on the street.”
The seized bills, according to the operatives, were made in the Caucasus - they coincide with those seized earlier from other crooks.
According to the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, about 3 thousand counterfeit banknotes are revealed every month in the country, the lion's share of which is five thousandths. On a Russian scale, this is quite a bit. There are 170 times fewer convicted for the manufacture, possession, transportation or sale of counterfeit money or securities than those convicted under narcotic articles (statistics of the Supreme Court for 2018).
However, more and more often, the final distributors of counterfeit money, as well as drug mortgagors (RT wrote about this in detail), are teenagers and young people of a student age. There are no official statistics on this subject, but an Internet search for the keywords “teens, counterfeit money” provides a list of recent stories. In Perm Krai, 16-year-olds were detained, in Crimea - one 16-year-old and one 17-year-old ... Everyone has the same scheme: they bought it through Telegram or a darknet website. Paragraph 1 of Art. 186 (a small-scale act not committed by an organized group) involves imprisonment for up to eight years or forced labor - up to five years.
“I don’t get paid for it”
Maxim and Andrey confessed to everything.
“There will be extenuating circumstances - they will have given themselves up to episodes that had not yet been registered at the time of detention,” Olga Kalashnikova, an investigator at the St. Petersburg Linear Transport Directorate of the Ministry of Transport, said in a conversation with RT.
- Investigator of the St. Petersburg Linear Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Transport Olga Kalashnikova
- © RT / Alexey Boyarsky
“I thought they won’t give much for ten bills,” Andrei recalls.
Maybe they won’t give much to Maxim. But with Andrey it’s more complicated. In addition to the remaining fake banknotes, he also found drugs during the search: several amphetamine tablets, individually wrapped. It is precisely because of the number of these wrappers (that is how the mortgages are packed up) that Andrei is suspected not only of possession of narcotic substances (Article 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), but also of attempt to sell them (Article 228.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). And in a large size.
“If I were a mortgage, then why should I deal with fake money? - shrugs Andrew. - I live far from the city. I immediately bought a big bookmark so that I won’t dangle each time. ”
Andrei and Maxim are now defended by the so-called free lawyers - appointed by the state. Neither Maxim's father, nor Andrei's grandparents have any money. Maxim was lucky - his lawyer Irina Kot is trying to do everything that can facilitate the fate of her client. For example, I spent half a day traveling to a pre-trial detention center to help organize an interview: perhaps the court will take into account such active repentance. Andrei’s lawyer, although he helped us contact his relatives and clearly expressed concern about the interests of the client, refused to go to the pre-trial detention center with the words: “They don’t pay me for this.”
According to Andrei’s grandmother, the lawyer was also not present at the next court to choose a preventive measure - he was at another meeting at that time. Instead, he formally sat the first free lawyer, not acquainted with the details of the case at all.
“To say that we have been living in hell these two months is to say nothing,” Andrei’s grandmother sobs. - The child was not ready for an independent life. We all understand. But now law enforcement agencies want to bring him under something terrible. Under the spread of drugs! ”
Examples when mortgage students were given ten years, even against the background of very shaky, from the point of view of the layman, evidence is known.
“My grandparents are now under 70,” says Andrei. - If I leave only ten years later, they will not be. And the girl will not be. Most of all, I'm afraid not to see loved ones. ”
The director of the Safe Internet League, Ekaterina Mizulina, said in an interview with RT that more and more teenagers are involved in the sale of drugs and counterfeit money.
“Many of them are not aware of the consequences of their actions. The problem is aggravated by the fact that groups of the so-called ultra-movement, which includes such movements as A.U.E., near-football hooligans, etc., are gaining popularity among young people on social networks. They apply for easy money making invitations. The number of posts promoting the attractiveness of antisocial behavior (alcoholism, drug addiction, crime, immorality, degradation) has grown 200 times since 2017. The videos posted on YouTube and VKontakte describe in detail where and how to buy fake money. Are these videos illegal? Is there a need to limit their distribution? This is a question not only for the state, but also for the Internet sites themselves. Until they themselves begin to remove this kind of content, the situation will not budge. Last year, we proposed amending the law: sites are required to monitor what applies to them. And if such information is not deleted, fine. Such standards have already been introduced into the legislation of the EU and the USA, ”Mizulina said.