Russian law enforcement agencies conducted a large-scale operation against a widely known Azerbaijani authority in the criminal world in the city of Saint Petersburg. The person who had managed to evade justice for many years has finally been apprehended.
Musavat.com reports that in Saint Petersburg, the Azerbaijani "thief in law," known in the criminal world as "Yusif Shamakhrli," 54-year-old Yusif Aliyev, has been detained. According to reliable sources at the Main Directorate of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Saint Petersburg, Aliyev had been wanted internationally since 2008.
According to the source, he is officially charged with a number of particularly serious and ruthless crimes, including the murder of two or more persons. It was reported that Yusif Aliyev was handcuffed during a sudden operation conducted by special forces on the morning of June 9 at one of the secret residences located on the Makarov shore of Saint Petersburg. According to other information obtained by the "Kommersant" newspaper, in addition to murder cases, Aliyev is also accused under the relevant article of the Russian Criminal Code of holding a high position in the criminal hierarchy (having the status of a "thief in law") and faces up to 15 years of imprisonment in a high-security regime under this article.
It should be recalled that in March 2009, Yusif Aliyev and three other Azerbaijani "thieves in law" were detained on suspicion of extortion by threats during a major criminal "meeting" held in a restaurant in Moscow; however, he managed to escape from the investigation shortly after and went into hiding. Currently, legal procedures are ongoing to choose a preventive measure of detention against him and to renew old criminal cases.