The Moscow City Court sentenced Andrei Torkunov to 21 years in a strict regime colony and a fine of 4 million rubles in the case of occupying the highest position in the criminal hierarchy, robbery and extortion, RBC reports. The investigation considers him the head of a drug cartel associated with the Moldovan businessman Vladimir Plahotniuc.
According to the case file, Torkunov, known in criminal circles as the Turk, was responsible for transporting hashish from Europe to Russia and since 2013 has been the so-called overseer of the actions of Moldovan criminal groups in the Moscow region.
Andrey Torkunov, according to investigators, appointed “policy guards” in various regions of Russia and Moldova, who were responsible for feeding the common fund. In addition to drugs, he oversaw the gang of Nikolai Grecu. The robbers were engaged in attacks on cottages in the Moscow region: they penetrated the previously studied objects and took away all the valuables there. Among the victims are the families of Major General of the FSB Umar-Pasha Khanaliev, former co-chairman of the “Business Russia” movement Andrey Nazarov and businessman Alexander Averin.
In June 2019, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs charged Plahotniuc with organizing a criminal community that withdrew more than 37 billion rubles from Russia by engaging in large-scale illegal foreign exchange transactions. In August of the same year, a businessman in Russia was charged with leading an international drug syndicate, as well as on 28 episodes of smuggling and illegal sale of drugs on an especially large scale.
The ministry then pointed out that Plahotniuc “influenced the political situation and the state authorities of Moldova, and using criminal methods, influenced those who opposed him.” “For the purpose of personal enrichment, he entered into a criminal conspiracy with the leaders of organized crime in the Republic of Moldova, including those occupying the highest position in the criminal hierarchy,” said the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, Irina Volk.
In 2019, a case was opened in Moldova about the “usurpation of state power” by the Democratic Party of Moldova, which was headed by Plahotniuc. Before that, he himself had already left Moldova, where he was put on the wanted list.
