MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. One of the inmates at a maximum-security penal colony IK-19 in Russia’s southern Volgograd Region that took the facility's staff hostage on Friday was a member of a major drug gang, according to the verdict in Ramzidin Toshev’s case.

"Sharif Ziyadullayev and Ramzidin Toshev were members of an organized group that tried to sell a big amount of drugs in the town of Volzhsky online. A yet unidentified person who was using the Internet for personal gain had brought several natives of Uzbekistan together to illegally sell a drug mixture containing methadone," the verdict reads.

Toshev and his cousin Ziyadullayev joined the group in an attempt to solve their financial problems. They were eventually caught by police and sentenced to eight years in prison.

Hostage-taking incident

On August 23, four inmates at the colony took eight staff members and four other inmates hostage. Four staff members suffered knife injuries; three of them died. Another four employees were taken to the hospital; one of them died. Four inmates were also injured. The attackers were killed in an operation to free the hostages, which was carried out by the regional branch of the Federal Penitentiary Service and the National Guard.

According to earlier reports, three of the attackers had been convicted of drug trafficking and the fourth one of involuntary manslaughter. Two of them were Tajik nationals and the other two were Uzbek citizens.