Law enforcement officers detain criminal group that terrorized Carpathian region
The National Police of Ukraine and the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) have detained members of a criminal group that terrorized residents of the Ivano-Frankivsk region.
"In less than six months, law enforcement officers identified all members of the group, the circle of victims, and documented each episode of their criminal activity. Led by the so-called "watcher" of the city of Kolomyia and the Kolomyia district, the group specialized in extortion, seizure and destruction of property, and beatings. The criminal influence of its leader spread both at large and in places of imprisonment," the National Police website said on Monday.
For a long time, the perpetrators kept local residents and businessmen in fear. "Psychological pressure, intimidation, threats of physical violence against family members, damage to property - all possible methods were used to force the victims to agree to criminal demands. In addition, the members of the organized criminal group also committed contract crimes," the report states.
The group included individuals who had previously been prosecuted for serious crimes - in particular, murder and extortion. Some of the business ties between the members were established in places of imprisonment.
The amounts of fictitious debts ranged from $8,000 to $800,000 and depended on the ability of the future victim to pay. At least 10 episodes of criminal activity have been documented so far. "It was documented how the attackers "knocked out" $800,000 from the owners of a family business in the Carpathian region. In another episode, the bandits demanded that a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine give them his savings. To put pressure on the Ukrainian defender, they promised to visit his relatives and destroy all family property," the SBU press service notes.
Law enforcement officers conducted a large-scale special operation, as a result of which 12 suspects were detained in a procedural order. Several of them were captured immediately after receiving part of the funds from the entrepreneur - $300,000. As reported by the SBU, one of the attackers was detained right at the border while trying to escape to a neighboring European Union country.
Law enforcement officers also conducted 28 authorized searches of the places of residence and vehicles of the defendants in Ivano-Frankivsk, Kyiv, Rivne, Kolomyia, Kropyvnytsky, as well as in Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Zakarpattia and Khmelnytskyi regions. Cars, weapons, money, notebooks with draft notes, etc. were seized.
Under the procedural guidance of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Prosecutor's Office, police investigators informed 12 members of the group of suspicion under Part 4 of Article 189 (extortion) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. All were selected as preventive measures in the form of detention. The sanction of the article provides for a penalty of up to 12 years of imprisonment with confiscation of property. According to the SBU, the issue of announcing additional suspicions under Article 255-1 and Article 255-3 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (establishment or spread of criminal influence, application for the use of criminal influence).
