MOSCOW, July 03 /ITAR-TASS/. Suspected leader of Moscow region’s Shchelkovo-based gang Alexander Matusov has been deported to Russia from Thailand, sources from the Russian General Prosecutor’s Office said on Thursday.
They said Matusov, nicknamed as Basmach, is accused of a number of crimes, including an attempt on the life of two or more people by an organized group, as well as intended killing of two persons committed by an organized group.
Detectives found that on November 17, 1996, criminals led by Pavel Bondartskov attacked four business people, killing three of them and wounding another one in the settlement of Sverdlovsky in the Moscow region’s Shchelkovo district.
In June 2010, Matusov was put on the federal wanted list. In August 2010 he was put on the international wanted list at a request from the criminal search department in Shchelkovo municipal district. He was arrested for the violation of traffic rules on June 23, 2014 in the Thai sea resort of Pattaya, where he had lived since 2009 on forged passport.
“In cooperation with the Russian Embassy to Thailand and the National Central Bureau of Interpol of the Russian Interior Ministry, the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office has taken measures for Matusov’s deportation to Russia,” the sources said.
In the early 1990s, Matusov was part of the Izmailovo criminal group, and later set up his own one known under the name of Shchelkovo gang. In the criminal world, it is listed among the cruelest. Russian law enforcement agencies stated that Shchelkovo gang had committed more than 60 murders and abductions.
Some of its participants have already been put on trial. In 2011, the court sentenced eight members of the criminal group, including its ringleader, to between six and 21 years in a tough security penitentiary.
Matusov was deported to Russia on Thursday, convoyed by officers from the Moscow Interpol Bureau and the Federal Penitentiary Service.