The court sentenced a gang of “Rostov Amazons” who were engaged in robbery, robbery and attacks on security forces for weapons

The Rostov Regional Court sentenced four members of the Amazon gang, which operated in Russia from 1998 to 2013. This was reported by the press service of the Investigative Committee.

The founder of the gang, Inessa Tarverdieva, her daughter Victoria Tarverdieva, and the only man among those convicted, Sergei Sinelnik, a former traffic police officer, were each sentenced to 25 years in prison. Sinelnik's wife Anastasia was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

As the press service of the Investigative Committee writes, “depending on the role of each,” they were found guilty under articles 105 (organizing and committing the murder of two or more persons), 162 (robbery), 226 (theft of weapons), 222 (illegal trafficking in weapons), 158 (theft), 317 of the Criminal Code (attack on the life of a law enforcement officer).

According to security officials, the gang was involved in 16 murders, 4 attempted murders, 8 robberies, 60 thefts, as well as theft and illegal trafficking of weapons in the Stavropol Territory, Rostov Region and Kalmykia.

In particular, the convicts attacked law enforcement officers in order to take their weapons; they carefully planned their crimes. Thus, in 2012, Inessa Tarverdieva and Roman Podkopaev (another gang member) stole weapons from private security officers who responded to a call to a dental clinic in Novocherkassk after a report of a broken window in the building. In order to get the weapons of the security forces, Tarverdieva and Podkopaev shot them. In addition, the gang is involved in the murders of civilians, including minors.

This is not the first verdict against the gang of “Rostov Amazons”. In 2017, Inessa Tarverdieva was sentenced to 21 years in prison, her daughter to 16 years, Anastasia Sinelnik to 19 years, and her husband to 20 years in prison. They were found guilty under articles 209 (banditry), 105 (murder), 162 (robbery), 226 and 222 of the Criminal Code (theft and illegal trafficking in weapons).

Then the court considered only those crimes that were committed from 2007 to 2009. During this period, according to the Investigative Committee, the gang was involved in 10 murders and one attempted murder in the Rostov region. Among other things, in 2009, the convicts killed Nizhny Novgorod SOBR officer Dmitry Chudakov, his wife and two children on the M-4 Don highway. The security forces continued to investigate the crimes of the Amazons, and in August 2022, the updated case was submitted to the Rostov Regional Court for consideration.

The gang members were detained in 2013. At the same time, Inessa Tarverdieva and Roman Podkopaev began a shootout with the police officers; Podkopaev and one security officer died on the spot from their wounds.