MOSCOW, November 7 (Itar-Tass) — Two Moscow region police officers suspected of taking a one-million-dollar bribe, have been fired, the press service of the Interior Ministry's department for the Moscow region told Itar-Tass.
Earlier, Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Tass that two detectives of operations/investigation unit # 1 of the regional economic security department were under investigation. A court sanctioned their arrest.
The investigator said the officers had taken more than 20,000 boxes of footwear worth some 35 million roubles from the premises of warehouses in the town of Mytishchi, which belonged to Chinese entrepreneurs.
"The police demanded remuneration through intermediary for the return of the seized merchandise. On September 11, the intermediary was detained as he was receiving a 1.2-million rouble bribe at a cafe in Mytishchi," the SK representative said.
The detainees were a police Major, a senior detective and his accomplice, a police Lieutenant Colonel. It was the final payment for the return of the goods and dropping criminal proceedings. In all, the police officers had demanded one million dollars as remuneration, Markin said.
Following a check into these facts, head of the regional police department Niklai Golovikin decided to fire the above officers.
"The head of the regional economic security department was reprimanded for lack of control over his subordinates' work," the press service said.
Several regional police officials were demoted after the incident.