The verdict of the Central District Court of Novokuznetsk in a criminal case brought against two local residents entered into force. Depending on the role of each, they were accused of committing crimes under part  4 of Article 158 of the Russian Criminal Code “Theft”, paragraph “a” of part 4 of Article 174.1 of the Russian Criminal Code “Legalization (laundering) of funds or other property acquired by a person as a result of committing a crime,” part 1 of Article 222 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Illegal acquisition, transfer, sale, storage, transportation or carrying of arms, their main parts, ammunition” and part 3 and part 4 of Article 228.1 of the RF Criminal Code “Illegal production, sale or transfer of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogs”.

The investigator and officers of the criminal investigation department of the Russian MIA Administration for the city of Novokuznetsk established that a local resident was the organizer of the crimes. During the investigation, he made a confession, a pre-trial agreement was concluded with him. The criminal case against the rest was organized in a separate proceeding. The court sentenced the organizer of the criminal group to 11 years and 6 months of imprisonment in a penal colony of strict regime with a fine of 40 thousand rubles. Another member of the group fled during the judicial investigation and is currently on the wanted list. Now the court's verdict against two more of their accomplices has come into force.

The investigation established the involvement of two members of the group in the commission of two thefts from jewelry stores and pawnshops. In both cases, the defendants at night entered through the basement premises the store and the pawnshop, where they stole gold jewelry and money. In one case, they took from a salon more than 500 items of jewelry worth more than 2,600,000 rubles, and from a neighboring pawnshop - jewelry and money to a total of about 1,500,000 rubles. After a while, the defendants robbed another outlet, where they stole goods and proceeds totaling more than 3,200,000 rubles. They sold gold jewelry in other cities, and divided the money received among themselves.

In addition, one of the convicts, together with the organizer of the crimes, tried to take possession of an ATM located in one of the shops in the Metallurgov settlement of the Novokuznetsk District. For these purposes, they stole a truck from the parking lot of one of the enterprises. At night, the accomplices drove the vehicle to the store and, with the help of a rope, pulled out into the street, an ATM in which there were about 600,000 rubles. The offenders planned to take the ATM to a deserted place and crack open it. However, on the way, the heavy truck broke down, and the attempt to extract money from the ATM failed. Having abandoned the truck, the offenders fled.

In addition, one of the defendants, together with the leader of the group and the defendant, who is currently on the wanted list, organized a trade in synthetic drugs. The drug dealers sold them through the so-called “caches”. The accomplices packed the prohibited substances in rented apartments, after which they transported them to the hiding places. In total, as a result of operational-search measures of the police, over 700 grams of the prohibited substances were seized from illegal trafficking. The investigation also collected evidence that the defendants legalized the money received from the drug trade through various financial transactions.

The Central District Court found the members of the group guilty and sentenced them to 9 years 2 months and 15 years in prison. After consideration of the appeal submitted to the Kemerovo Regional Court, the verdict came into legal force.