Northern allowances: teenagers organized a drug cartel in Kolyma
A schoolboy and a technical school student turned out to be the organizers of a criminal group that traded drugs on a federal scale. Izvestiya's source said that the two minors controlled the logistics and recruitment of kladmen in Magadan Region. They, along with accomplices, were charged with articles on drug trafficking and participation in a criminal association. What is known about the case - in the material "Izvestia".
Going to Magadan
In the case of a large drug store, created mainly by residents of the Far East, there are new defendants, and minors. A 9th grade student and a first-year student of a local technical school, whom the investigation considers to be the heads of the Magadan territorial subdivision of the drug network, ran an "online store" for the sale of narcotic drugs from at least September to October 2024. Prior to that, the teenagers were engaged in the illegal sale of smoking mixtures and vaporizers.
The defendants took over the administration after the detention of some of the persons involved in the case. They carried out the main activities remotely, used Telegram to coordinate the work of kladmen, packers, as well as remotely controlled the logistics of deliveries.
Orient Express
The exposure of a large network of drug stores operated from Magadan became known last summer. Initially, six members of the criminal structure were detained, which had spread its influence over 22 regions of the country - Buryatia, Novosibirsk region, Yakutia, Transbaikalia, Astrakhan region, Bashkiria, Moscow, Black Earth region, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug and the entire Far East and Kaliningrad region. Each region had its own store-distributor of the network.
The backbone of the group was made up of people with criminal experience, mostly convicted of theft and drug trafficking offenses. During a year of work, the investigators figured out the structure of the syndicate and identified four divisions that differed in their functions. One of them dealt with "staffing issues" - responsible for recruiters. The second was responsible for operators and supervisors. The third was responsible for packers, warehouses, transportation, and wholesale pawnbrokers. The fourth "department" was in charge of working with retail pawners (couriers) and autonomous warehouses. It is worth explaining that autonomous warehouses are often simply pawnbrokers with a good reputation in the criminal world, who can be trusted with a significant amount of drugs with minimal risk.
The nuances of a large investigation
- The logistics of such crimes are organized in the same way in Kaliningrad, the capital, and the Far East," retired justice colonel Sergei Pelikh, an expert on international drug trafficking, explained to Izvestia. - The criminal community is actively using the means of modern communication, the staff is recruited from among minors who are not yet mentally strong, as well as drug-addicted citizens, and in the regions and small towns there are much less problems with recruitment than in the megacities of the European part of the country. It is not surprising that young people succeeded in this case: teenagers quickly adapt in the media space, more effectively involve their peers in illegal activities, understanding trends, slang and so on.
In his opinion, the underage organizers involved in the case were only part of the management apparatus, based on the fact that they performed their functions only from September to October of this year (according to Izvestia's source in the law enforcement agencies).
-The presence of minors in the criminal case means that in the near future it will be transferred to the specialized investigative units of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation," Pelikh explained. - Four structural subdivisions divided along functional lines and 22 along regional lines - this is a pretty serious drug business.
Kolyma difficulties
According to the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, from January to October 2024 in the Magadan region recorded an increase in crime by almost 5%. Juvenile delinquency has increased by almost 93% in Kolyma. Teenagers committed 162.5% more serious and especially serious crimes compared to last year. 2.5 times more crimes are committed by teenagers in a group of persons by prior agreement, five times more - in mixed groups (with the participation of adult criminals).
More drugs are also seized: if in the first 10 months of last year law enforcement agencies found about 7 kilograms, since the beginning of this year almost 39 kilograms, i.e. 5.5 times more. According to a source in the law enforcement agencies, this data may indicate both greater efficiency of police work and an increase in the production of synthetic drugs in the region. The total number of registered drug offenses has increased by 7%. He called the rise in teenage group crime an even greater threat.
- "The high percentage of so-called mixed groups indicates the 'mentoring' of adult criminals over teenagers," a source familiar with the drug situation in Russia explained to Izvestia. - This is an unpleasant peculiarity in the Far East, where so-called thieves' traditions are strong, and where the adherence of young people to the "AUE" movement, which is banned in the country, is still seriously condemned.
