“Operatives and investigators of the MIA of Russia Administration for the Trans-Baikal Territory suppressed the illegal activity of an organized group, whose members were suspected of illegal logging.

A criminal investigation was initiated under part 3 of Article 260 of the Russian Criminal Code. During the preliminary investigation, it was established that an individual entrepreneur, engaged in logging, organized trees felling outside the area allocated to him. He involved residents of the villages of Olengui and Sypchegur in the illegal activities. According to the available information, more than 1.5 thousand pines and larches, which were subsequently processed at a sawmill and sold under falsified documents outside the Russian Federation, were destroyed by the offenders. The forest fund suffered a damage in an amount of over 10 million rubles.

During the search, two tractors, four trucks, and a sawmill were seized.

In the course of operational-search activities the police detained eight residents of the Chitinsky District. With regard to the alleged organizer and two active members of the group, the court has chosen a preventive measure in the form of remand in custody, the rest are on recognizance of not to leave and to behave properly.

Currently, investigative steps and operative-search measures are being taken to establish all the circumstances of the unlawful activity,” said the official representative of the Russian MIA Irina Volk.