After the murder of the “godfather” of the Estonian criminal world – chaos: nothing like this has happened yet

Since 2013, the Estonian Criminal Police and the Prosecutor’s Office have been systematically involved in the liquidation of organized crime groups, which is the year that a special investigation team was created. In just five years, the leaders of seven criminal organizations and a total of 82 members of such structures have been found in the dungeon, Delfi.ee writes.

Until December 2016, the criminal world of Estonia was governed by the authority of the underground criminal world Nikolai Tarankov. A situation of extreme chaos occurred after his murder. For many years, criminal groups had fairly formal relationships and held together, but when Yuri Vorovay fired a fatal bullet, the illusion of stability disappeared.

State Attorney Vahur Verte and Ago Leis, Head of the Office to Fight Organized Crime, noted at the annual meeting organized by the Office of the Attorney General chapter of the organized crime book.

As emphasized at the meeting, after the death of N. Tarankov, the new leader, the Estonian criminal world, did not choose anyway. Some potential candidates are detained or are already serving a custodial sentence, while others have left the country. The third simply does not want public attention. Finding the right candidate has become an insurmountable task for Estonian criminals.

I couldn’t agree

Over the years, it has become clear that criminal groups operating in Estonia cannot choose a leader that is acceptable to everyone. Unable to agree until now. Attempts to restart the old system, which clearly requires a new authority, have been unsuccessful, as both a coalition and an opposition have immediately formed between the factions.

The pressure grew, everyone began to remind themselves of the grievances of the past and the debts of the last decade of the 20th century: who was in conflict with whom, who remained in disagreement and who simply did not fit in to become a leader.

He simply is not willing to say that he is too old or too smart to claim a death sentence. Better to settle for second place, one way or another it will be money.
Furthermore, if a new commander is appointed, the police will react accordingly and the leaders of the criminal groups know this. There are also those who still await trial or have already spent years behind bars.

Ago Leis says that those in general do not decide in any way whether they need a leader or three, or perhaps even five, administrators for a criminal world. According to him, the group’s leaders seriously considered the so-called authoritarian model with a leader and the possibility of forming a council or board where decisions would be made by voting.

Some people who left the criminal world even further for some reason thought that they could become heirs of N. Tarankov because they were neutral and independent.

In other words, people offered their nominations, various options were on the table, but the decision was not made.

Leis says that was when Ahmed Ozdoyev was able to seize the opportunity and start spreading the word about himself as a candidate for a leadership position in the world of criminals. Ozdoyev even gave an interview, and reporters asked him what he thought about the responsibility of a world leader for criminals and what he thought could become him.

There has never been anything like it in the world of Estonian criminals: that a person who belongs to him, without hiding his face or identity, dedicates himself to the media and, therefore, announces himself.

Therefore, A. Ozdojev called himself the authority of the Estonian criminals, some of the media became aware of this problem, but the authorities of the criminal world only mocked him. And the attempt to announce A. Ozdojev took a painful turn: he became one of the defendants in the Hubert Chirv and Pavlo Gammer case.

Paat Sachokija, a Georgian citizen, also tried to establish his position as the authority of the Estonian criminal world. It was only after the shooting at the Hotel Metropol that the bars opened in February 2017.

Canes appeared

If we look more broadly, all that turmoil in the Estonian criminal world has not benefited. If in the days of N. Tarankov the Estonian criminals did not allow strangers to enter, now some, others still request to enter: these are ex-Yugoslavs from Sweden, these are criminals from Russia. And today, Estonian criminals with such vague figures are trembling, but the mere fact that they are trying to establish themselves in the country shows very clearly that a firm hand is missing here.

Most recently, in December 2019, Viktor Gironav, nicknamed César, a Russian criminal, was arrested and deported in Tallinn.

The homeland of this criminal authority is concerned: with the adoption of a new law by Russian President Vladimir Putin, it is possible to sit behind bars for only 8-15 years just by leading a criminal group. According to the understanding of characters in the criminal world, you should not answer negatively if you ask if it is.

Ago Leis, head of the Office for the Fight against Organized Crime, points out that the new law has forced the authorities of the Russian criminal world to raise their wings: they cannot stay in Russia or Georgia, so they are invading the European Union. Most Russian criminals are based in southern and central Europe.

There have never been such organized crime officials in Estonia. However, one or the other constantly appears in Riga. Some stay there longer, others simply pass on their way to Jūrmala on vacation.

Lithuania has its own system: there are strong groups based on national identity.

What’s left?

State Attorney Vahur Verte notes that the purpose of criminal gangs is not just to squirt empty handed. Your goal is to earn money. Will you start wasting a gun and have a shootout? The police will report immediately. And criminals know this perfectly well.

Tarankov’s murder shuffled all the cards, no one knew what it was and what would happen next. Was it a commissioned murder? Or maybe someone thought of a coup in the criminal world?
For example, a month after Tarankov’s murder, the Kemerov group began buying weapons. In January 2017, Lauri Merimaa and Sergejus Permanov were killed in the Poseidon club. There was another wave of unrest.
Slava Kemerowski, the leader of the Kemerovo group, decided to leave “before retiring” to Spain, where he was detained during a joint Spanish-Estonian police operation.

NORTH. Tarankov’s funeral was attended not only by those members of the criminal world who were awaiting trial at the time: Charon Dikayev, Andrei Kuziakin, Assar Paulus, and N. Tarankov’s killer Yuri Borobay.

Now, as Verte points out, most of those who carried the coffin during the funeral are no longer at large. Marko Suvaoja and Sergei Martovoy have already been convicted, on May 28 the court also sentenced Vyacheslav Gulevich, and Oleg Martovoy and Eduard Košliakov are still awaiting a court decision.

The leader of the criminal group, Amid Magerramov from Azerbaijan, was extradited to the United States, where she is accused of drug trafficking.

Toomas Wilson is currently free and is exemplary at the Kemerovo court hearings.

So who could become Tarankov’s successor? Could it be Assar Paul, who is currently incarcerated for the last year of his sentence and will be released in April of next year? And what about Charon Dikaev, the leader of the Chechen group, who will have to spend 12 years behind bars? Both A. Paulus and Ch. Dikayev interacted with N. Tarankov. The money was shared without any problem.

V. Verte admitted that during the interrogations in the case of the Azerbaijani group, one of the witnesses stated that he had not found a turn for N. Tarankov, since he was waiting for A. Paulus and Ch. Dikayev.

A. Paulus refused to do the work in prison, so he remained impure in the eyes of his colleagues: members of the criminal world will not be able to attribute anything to him. It is very possible that he was the first to accept the prosecutor’s proposal, Verte mentions. Be that as it may, only Paul himself knows how to live in freedom, as a law-abiding citizen or, anyway, go back to his old jobs.

There are also more prominent actors in the Estonian criminal world. For example, Pavel Gammer and Hubert Chirvas are currently awaiting a court ruling, but, as Leis points out, they are of a different caliber. Mr. Gammer and Mr. Chirv have been accused of machinations, have violated the unwritten rules of the criminal world, and members of other criminal gangs are reluctant to deal with them.

According to A. Leis, there is a lot of talk in the Estonian criminal world about what will be behind bars. During a search of Oleg Martovog’s house, the police found a list of all the groups that had contributed to the common monetary fund, which N. Tarankov maintained and distributed. Verte promises that some of the people on the list are already behind bars, and the rest will sooner or later catch up with justice.

What will the new decade bring?

Criminal gangs make money from smuggling, drug trafficking, tax evasion, and other crimes. Of course, they are always looking for new “business models”. For example, the “roof” method may become relevant again: it would be used for people living and working illegally in Estonia, Leis thinks.

According to the official, so far no such problem has been observed in Estonia.

The new decade is already changing the face of organized crime, it is becoming international. International drug trafficking has reached Estonia. Leis says that Estonia often becomes a transit country through which drugs are transported to Scandinavia and other countries.

He emphasizes that Latvia is attracting more and more attention. “Riga is only three or four hours away,” explains Leis. And in Latvia, third-country nationals can obtain a residence permit as long as they invest a significant amount in local real estate.

There were times when the groups were made up of people of the same nationality: Azerbaijanis, Chechens, Russians, Estonians, but now nationality is no longer important. The only thing that matters is being faithful to the leader and bringing money.

Estonian criminals operate not only in the Baltic states, but also cooperate successfully with groups across Europe, mainly with drug cartels.