Employees of the Federal Security Service, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation conducted an operation in Dagestan, as a result of which the activities of the Sharapovskie organized crime group were suppressed.

“The leaders and members of the gang were involved in a series of murders of businessmen and law enforcement officers, kidnapping, extortion, robbery and robbery in 2007–2015 in Dagestan and Moscow. The Sharapovsky’s crimes were particularly cruel and caused widespread public outcry, ”the FSB press release said.

During the period when the gang was active, in total about 250 people entered it. Among them were the officers of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan operating at that time, members of the lawyer chamber of the republic, as well as members of the terrorist underground.

“During the investigation, the circumstances of the preparation and implementation by them of a terrorist act in 1998 in Makhachkala, which resulted in the deaths of several dozen people, more than 100 were seriously injured,” the department explained.

This is a terrorist attack in Makhachkala that occurred on September 4, 1998. According to investigators, the target of the terrorists was Said Amirov, who at that time held the post of mayor of the capital of Dagestan. The official himself was not injured, but several dozen houses were destroyed as a result of the explosion, 18 people were killed, including several children, and more than a hundred were injured.

As explained in the FSB, the main organizers and perpetrators of the crimes of the group were detained and charged. As a preventive measure, they were detained. Some participants in the organized crime group have already been sentenced to long terms of imprisonment. Those who managed to escape from law enforcement officers are wanted.

The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation explained that between August and November 2019, four members of the group were detained in the territory of Dagestan, as well as in Moscow. They were charged with crimes committed in 2007-2015. In addition, previously, one of the gang’s accomplices, the court convicted of attempted murder.

In addition, a weapon cache was discovered. Small arms and automatic weapons, ammunition, grenades, explosives, as well as anti-tank missile systems were withdrawn from illicit trafficking.

“The investigators, together with the operational services, during the searches, discovered a weapon cache. Grenades and other ammunition were seized. Explosive objects are subsequently rendered harmless and destroyed, ”the official website of the RF IC says.

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FSB anti-terrorist activities

In late November, it was also reported that the FSB, together with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Service of the National Guard Troops, managed to detain nine members of the terrorist organization Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami *. The operation took place in Moscow, Tatarstan and the Tyumen region.

Special services officers detained two leaders and seven members of the association banned in Russia.

“The members of the structure carried out anti-constitutional activities based on the doctrine of creating the so-called world caliphate, destroying the institutions of secular society and aimed at overthrowing the current government by force,” explained the FSB.

Attackers spread extremist literature, recruited Muslim people into their ranks, thus forming hidden terrorist cells. Propaganda materials were seized from members of the banned organization.

In mid-November, the Ministry of Internal Affairs also managed to liquidate the largest underground laboratory for the production of synthetic drugs in Russia. About 1.5 tons of narcotic substances were created there monthly. The production was located on the premises of the former farm. A warehouse with chemical reagents, as well as several chemical reactors worth between 200 thousand and 500 thousand rubles each, were found in two rooms.

As part of the operation, three Ukrainian citizens were detained who performed the functions of chemical technologists, as well as a courier-mortgagee and the alleged organizer of the illegal production.

* “Hizb ut-Tahrir al-Islami” (“Islamic Liberation Party”) - the organization was recognized as terrorist by a decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.