The leader of the Zakharov organized crime group has been released from prison

Sergei Zakharov, the leader of the Zakharov organized crime group (OCG), which operated in the 1990s, has been released. This was reported by a source of "Izvestiya".

In July 2021, a Moscow City Court jury found Zakharov guilty of organizing the murder of a member of the Taganskaya OCG and the elimination of a former member of his own gang, as well as illegal trafficking in weapons. However, the jury acquitted him on charges of kidnapping, extortion and another murder. On August 6 of the same year, the gang leader was sentenced to 24 years and 11 months' imprisonment in a strict regime colony.

According to the interlocutor, the final sentence included 1 year 4 months, when Zakharov was in prison in 1996-1997, as well as the term from 2001. As the source pointed out, the man was not released on parole.

Zakharov is a former special forces officer, and he created his organized crime group in the 1990s. It operated in Moscow and the Moscow region. In 1995, Zakharov instructed his associates to organize surveillance of one of the members of the Taganskaya OCG, and then to kill this person. Later, in 1996, the ringleader organized the murder of a former member of his own group, whose members received $12,000 for the execution of this crime.

Zakharov was detained in 2001. In April 2003, the man was found guilty of banditry, extortion, murder and kidnapping. The head of the organized crime group was then sentenced to imprisonment for 21 years. Then, in 2019, Zakharov admitted that he was involved in the murder of businessman Konygin and a certain Shved, associated with the Taganskaya OCG.