[Regnum] The Chelyabinsk District Court has designated the Makhoninsky organized crime group as an extremist organization and confiscated its property. A law enforcement source told RIA Novosti on November 14.
According to him, property worth approximately 2.5 billion rubles is being transferred to the state. Twenty-three people are named as defendants in the case, including brothers Andrei and Alexander Makhonin, their relatives, and business partners.
The Makhoninskys own 109 properties and 12 vehicles, a law enforcement representative clarified, citing the text of the lawsuit.
According to the Prosecutor General's Office, the organized crime group, through its subordinate companies and trusted individuals included among the co-defendants in the case, currently owns the majority of retail outlets in Chelyabinsk, as well as a number of companies. The group's members are accused of receiving illegal income related to the operation of correctional facilities and transferring funds abroad.
It is also believed that the organized crime group had connections with the former governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Mikhail Yurevich; on September 3, he was again put on the wanted list.
In late October, officers from the regional FSB department conducted searches of the defendants' homes, after which the property involved in the case was seized, and the Prosecutor General's Office filed a lawsuit demanding that the Makhoninsky association be banned and declared extremist.
On November 14, FSB officers detained the head of the Makhoninsky organized crime group, Alexander Makhonin, in Chelyabinsk.