Georgian game

Intelligence agencies set records for casino inspections

The massive attack on representatives of the “Georgian criminals”, launched this week in Moscow by the Russian special services, yesterday received a new vector. The operatives, clearly under the influence of the latest initiatives of the State Duma and President Putin to tighten rules for the gambling business, have already turned part of their “righteous anger” against Moscow casinos in general. Just yesterday, representatives of various services of the Ministry of Internal Affairs visited and suspended the activities of three gambling establishments at once - Golden Palace Weekend, Baccarat and Cosmos and, according to available information, planned to “visit” a number of other establishments.

Earlier, the security services closed two casinos - Golden Palace and Crystal, explaining this precisely by the fact that they were controlled by Georgian crime bosses. No one blamed the last casinos that fell into the “millstone” of the police for this; they were simply looking for violations. However, operatives finally named the ill-fated Georgian authorities who controlled part of the closed casinos. Almost all of them, as it turned out, have been sitting in a Spanish prison since the spring.

Along the way, the special services continued active operations on the “Georgian front” itself. Over the past 24 hours, police have reported the arrest of several more ethnic criminal groups and the dispersal of a gathering of thieves in law. Even traffic police officers joined this “offensive.” Whether this was a decision of the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs or the initiative of individual commanders “on the ground” is not known, but, according to some inspectors, they all allegedly received orders for each shift to issue orders for various offenses against 20 natives of Georgia.

However, as the police themselves believe, after the weekend, when local elections are held in Georgia, the “hunt” for “Georgian violators of Russian laws” will most likely be completed, and intelligence officers will be able to go about their daily business.

On Wednesday morning, all departments of the DEB were gathered in the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on Zhitnaya Street, and the heads of the departments received envelopes in which it was indicated at what address they should conduct the check. There were five of them, including the Golden Palace Weekend. When detectives arrived at the casino at nine in the evening, it turned out that except for the Golden Palace Weekend, all other establishments were closed. But at Golden Palace Weekend, according to operatives, “we were incredibly lucky.” Having examined all the premises, the detectives came across interesting archival materials kept by the owners of the establishment and for which an entire room was allocated. There were photo and video tapes with recordings of each client, as well as photocopies of debtors’ passports, etc. “Information about hotel and casino guests was illegally systematized by assigning nicknames to visitors, including those characterizing their appearance and habits,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said. “So, for example, a certain Badri had the nickname Bangs on the Back of the Head, and opposite the nickname Official there was a note - “everything is free,” and the head coach of one of the football clubs was listed under the nickname Dog-Dog, and so on.” But, as the operatives admitted, the casino management cannot be held accountable for these acts. Therefore, the main complaints against the owners are that the casino did not have tax registration certificates for gaming tables and machines, etc.

Among the documents seized by operatives was an addition to the charter of the Golden Palace. “Among the participants of this LLC with a criminal trail is the American corporation Bixel Support Services' Inc., registered in California, as signed on the document by the representative of the participant - well-known in law enforcement agencies of a number of European countries and the United States, Mr. Leon Lann. He is known from criminal chronicles,” the DEB noted.

The casino was “roofed”, according to detectives, by the famous leader of the Georgian group, thief in law Zakhary Kalashova, nicknamed Shakro-Molodoy. He recently lived in Spain, and in 2005 the police carried out an operation to neutralize the leaders of the “Russian mafia” who specialized in money laundering. The police froze 80 bank accounts and requisitioned dozens of expensive cars and villas. More than a dozen suspects were detained. However, Shakro-Young managed to escape. Already in May 2006, he was arrested in the UAE, and in June he was extradited to Spain. According to detectives, together with Shakro, the capital’s casinos were allegedly “supervised” by his associates Mikhail Mdinaradze and Vitaly Izgilov, nicknamed Vitalik, who are also in Spanish prisons.

As for the Baccarat and Cosmos casinos, yesterday detectives discovered violations unrelated to ethnic crime - tobacco products and alcohol products without excise stamps, lack of licenses, tax certificates, etc. In other capital casinos that have not yet come under pressure, it seems that they have already come to terms with the police activity. At the Metelitsa casino, for example, one of the administration employees told Vremya Novostey yesterday: “Well, if they come, we’ll show the necessary documentation. What can you do, a test is a test.”

Along the way, on Thursday night, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs visited the “Golden Elephant” restaurant on the 3rd street of Yamskoye Pole (located just opposite the recently closed Golden Palas casino), where they busted a “gathering of thieves.” “At the time of the inspection, there were 16 people in the restaurant, including four thieves in law - Edik Tbilissky, Timokha, Kashchei, Pichuga,” the Ministry of Internal Affairs said. - True, after checking all the authorities, they were released, and a case was opened against only one because of a fake passport, but they only took a written undertaking not to leave. However, in another place, detectives detained one Georgian authority, Alexei Gudyna, known as Lech Pitersky, for possession of drugs, which very conveniently happened to be in his pocket.” According to detectives, he allegedly was the “supervisor” of the Georgian thieves in law for St. Petersburg.

Ekaterina KARACHEVA, Alexey GRISHIN