MOSCOW, October 23./TASS/. Criminal kingpin Tariel Oniani has been extradited from Russia to Spain, Russian Interior Ministry Spokesperson Irina Volk told TASS on Wednesday.

"Tariel Oniani (Mulukhov), born in 1958, has been extradited from Russia to Spain. He was on the wanted list of the Spanish law enforcement agencies on suspicion of criminal activity," she said.

According to Volk, prior to the extradition, Oniani was stripped of the Russian citizenship. "Acting in cooperation with competent services, officers from the Russian Interior Ministry’s Criminal Investigation Department found out in that it had been obtained with the violation of law," she said.

Tariel Oniani was repeatedly tried for banditry and larceny. In the 1980s he was a crime boss in Moscow, while in the 1990s he moved to France and then to Spain, where he engaged in construction business. Oniani fled after a large-scale police operation across Europe, during which searches were made, including at his facilities.

In April 2006, he obtained the Russian citizenship, while in 2009, Oniani was detained for kidnapping a businessperson. In 2010, Moscow’s Khamovniki district court sentenced him to ten years in jail.