In the Irkutsk Region as a result of the joint work of the police, Investigation Administration of the Investigative Committee for the Irkutsk Region, Irkutsk Region prosecutor's office and the FSB of Russia for the Irkutsk Region have completed the investigation of activities of a criminal group, the leaders and members of which will soon stand the trial.

In order to prevent their illegal activities, officers of the Criminal Investigation Administration of the MIA General Administration for the Irkutsk Region implemented a complex of large-scale operational and search activities. As a result of the operation involving special unit servicemen of the MIA General Administration the alleged leader of the criminal group and the main suspects were detained in November of 2013. It should be noted, that the detention of the organizer took place in Novosibirsk. Already at the initial stage of the investigation all of them were taken to custody at the request of the investigators.

In the course of investigating all the circumstances of their activities, operatives together with the investigating authorities of the Russian IC for the Irkutsk Region and the Office of the Russian FSB for the Irkutsk Region interrogated more than 400 people, conducted dozens of examinations and other activities, which allowed to establish the involvement of 26 group members in 43 crimes.

According to the available information, at the stage of forming the criminal group, in 2003, its participants made a number of very serious crimes, including the murder of one of the leaders of the opposing criminal group.

As the police believe, the suspects committed extortion of money from businessmen of Zheleznogorsk-Ilimsky. In case of refusal, they destroyed the property of citizens by arson, committed theft of cars, which subsequently were returned for a ransom.

At the moment the indictment approved by the Prosecutor's Office of the Irkutsk Region, together with the criminal case materials, has been submitted to the Irkutsk Regional Court. 16 people will stand the trial, 6 of whom are in custody, including all the leaders of the criminal group. Earlier with regard to 7 members of the group the criminal prosecution was discontinued for non-rehabilitation reasons (death, the lapse of time, etc.), 3 persons made pre-trial agreement on cooperation, which assumed the full cooperation of the defendants with the investigation, their criminal cases are to be considered in a separate proceeding.