The end of Titanic

The Ministry of Internal Affairs deprived Izmailovo traders of goods

It took the Ministry of Internal Affairs officers about a hundred trucks and three days to remove consumer goods stored in the huge warehouses of the clothing market in Izmailovo. If in the near future the owners of the cargo fail to prove that it is not contraband, all goods worth over $4 million will be turned into state revenue.

According to representatives of the Main Directorate for Combating Economic Crimes of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, they usually work directly in the markets, but this time they decided to start checking from warehouses under the Izmailovo stadium. The traders themselves have a system of premises occupying about 30 thousand square meters. meters, for its scale and complexity it received the nickname “Titanic”. Part of the vault is located directly under the stands, and the other goes deep underground, where the basements and a huge bomb shelter are located.

When operatives raided the Titanic in the middle of last week to check, they found that the warehouse was filled from top to bottom with shoes, clothing, household appliances, etc. The police wanted to get acquainted with the documents for all these goods, but the leaders of the Rosklas company, which partially owns the market itself and rents all these premises from the Izmailovo sports and recreation enterprise, said that they had no idea where they came from. This is not surprising - according to representatives of the GUBEP, the company, according to the agreement with the private entrepreneur, did not have the right to sublease warehouses. However, as the traders admitted to the operatives, Rosklas actively provided them with its premises and charged $1,700 per month for one storage cell. According to the police, this was not formalized in any way, and, therefore, there were no deductions either to the city treasury or to the federal authorities.

The traders themselves (mostly Chinese and Indians) were also unable to present documents for the goods. According to representatives of the GUBEP, almost all of it was smuggled into Russia. Well-known manufacturers such as Nike, Adidas, Salamandra were indicated on the shoes, but examination showed that they were actually manufactured in underground factories in Asia, mainly China.

Having found out all the circumstances, representatives of the GUBEP began to solve an extremely difficult problem - how to remove all this stuff. It was necessary to use dozens of huge trucks, which for three days (the work was completed only late on Friday evening) removed the contents of the Titanic. In total, 96 trucks (if lined up in a row, the chain would stretch for 2 km) with cargo, which, according to preliminary estimates, cost $4 million, were delivered to the warehouse of the Moscow government's Finance Department. Already, the police have little doubt that the traders will not be able to present any documents for the cargo, so most likely it will be turned into state revenue. On the market itself, work almost came to a standstill, since there was simply nothing to sell there.

Alexander SHVAREV