The Velikiye Luki organized crime group is the largest criminal group in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She largely determined the criminal life of the northern capital for many years. The leaders of the Velikiye Luki criminal group were siblings Nikolai and Victor Gavrilenkov.
Grouping Background
The brothers were natives of the city of Velikiye Luki, which is located in the Pskov region. In childhood, the future leaders of the Velikolukskaya criminal gang lived in poverty - they lost their father early, and their mother was an employee of a local factory.
In addition, both Gavrilenkovs often got from older yard teens, united in aggressive groups. Since there was no one to defend them, the brothers began to do this on their own. The leaders of the future Velikolukskaya organized crime group (St. Petersburg in the future will shudder from the antics of members of this group) devoted all their free time to boxing training. Soon, no one wanted to conflict with the brothers.
After school
After graduating from school, Nikolai and Victor did not continue their studies, but began to earn money. Nikolai began to sell beer in Velikiye Luki, where he earned his first money. Very soon, he left the city to move to the metropolis. He chose Leningrad.
There, brothers, future leaders of the Velikolukskaya organized crime group, went into the beer business. They became employees of one of the most prestigious institutions of St. Petersburg - the restaurant "Windrose", which was located on Moscow Avenue.
Nikolai Gavrilenkov had his own scheme for solving problems. Very soon, thanks to her, he became the administrator of Windrose. In Soviet times, this was no worse than being the director of a large hotel.
The beginning of the formation of organized crime groups
In the 1980s, the Gavrilenkov brothers began to form a strong sports team in Windrose. It was headed by Andrey Sergeyev and Alexei Kosov. In addition, people from the city of Tambov gathered here. Vladimir Kumarin stood out against their background. Soon the brothers realized that with such a team they had new perspectives. The activities of the Velikolukskaya organized crime group began with racketeering.
During the years of "perestroika"
Perestroika opened up for many organized crime groups. In those years, cooperators became the field of activity for racketeers. Private merchants who were engaged in the sale of cheap products in the form of branded goods, antiques, and icons acted as objects of attention for the Velikolukskaya organized crime group.
Everything happened quite simply - they were engaged in extorting money from people who would never have contacted law enforcement agencies, realizing that the latter would show no less interest in them themselves. Soon, the business began to bring substantial profits.
In the late 1980s, a wave of emigration began throughout the USSR. Jews who left for their historical homeland did not go empty-handed beyond the Soviet borders. A couple of hours before their flights, representatives of organized crime groups came to them and took their jewelry. Here, the calculation also worked, because no one wanted to contact the police, already leaving the USSR.
The heyday of organized crime groups
Everything continued until 1989, when suddenly the Tambovskys were arrested almost in full force. Including Kumarin was sentenced to 4 years in prison. He was released on parole in 1991, and then turned to Gavrilenkov, asking for help. However, the brothers did not forgive Kumarin’s mistakes, and he left with the Tambov’s. So was created, in addition to Velikolukskaya, Tambov organized crime group. They worked in parallel, dividing their spheres of influence without entering into conflict. The northern capital was divided between them, however, they lived peacefully for a relatively short time.
In 1993, imported wine began to be delivered to the northern capital, and the businessman addressed this issue to the Tambovskys. The case was successful, and the city began selling real Spanish wine. But soon the "Great Lukas" learned about it. They took away goods worth $ 1,000,000 from the entrepreneur, refusing to return. The businessman turned to the Tambovskys, and Kumarin and Gavrilenkov decided to “score the arrow”.
She took place in the restaurant "Kolos" on the channel Griboedov. Coumarin recommended that the brothers return the money. They promised to do this, but very soon an unknown killer businessman was killed near his house on Zhelyabov Street.
It was decided to liquidate Kumarin, too, in 1994 his car was shot in automatic burst on Turku Street. His guard died, and Kumarin himself was seriously injured and lost his arm.
As soon as this assassination took place, armed “Tambovskys” arrived at the Kostyushko hospital in St. Petersburg to guard their boss. To disperse them, police officers worked for several hours.
About Activities
It is known that members of this organized criminal group controlled the market of “night butterflies”. They had their own watchmen for the “working people,” who took profits from pimps and monitored honesty. Identifying cases of deception, they punished the guilty. In particular, if someone hid incomes, the methods widely used by competitors were not practiced - digging the guilty alive in coffins for 5-10 minutes. Instead, the apartments of the deceivers were cleaned, from where virtually everything was taken out.
In addition, members of the group controlled the underground market. Illegal dealers who would have acted illegally would never have contacted the police if the money had been taken from them.
Gavrilenkov’s special frauds also became known. For example, one Petersburger had a diamond, which he intended to sell as a jewel. But the jeweler replaced him with ordinary glass. When the deceived turned to Gavrilenkov, he returned the stone, taking an amount that was not much less than the price of a diamond. And a satisfied resident of the northern capital did not know that the jeweler was in conspiracy with the benefactor.
Effects
The brothers realized that war was inevitable, and began to replenish their brigade. To them came recidivists who were on the federal wanted list - Valery Runov and Valery Gavrisenko. The fame of them rattled throughout St. Petersburg. They were called Valeriki, and it is known that they terrified even politicians. Frightened to death, the politicians led the investigation away from the real organizers of the assassination attempts on themselves.
In the mid-1990s, Nikolai Gavrilenkov was the real king of the criminal world of the city. Everyone turned to him on “You,” in official circles he was considered a respected entrepreneur. His income was so great that even a small state could envy him. He owned a network of shops, restaurants, real estate companies.
End of grouping
However, in the mid-1990s, internal conflicts began to flourish in the group. Their victims fell the very first participants - Andrei Sergeyev and Alexei Kosov. They lived in Budapest after wine operations. Having taken the money, they essentially “threw” the organized criminal group. And the brothers did not forgive them. Runov and Gavrisenko shot them in Budapest on October 28, 1994. At the same time, the behavior of the “Valeriks” alarmed the leaders of the organized crime groups — they were given too easy murders. It was decided to liquidate Gavrisenko, 2 unsuccessful attempts were made on him. And Gavrisenko decided to answer.
Answer
Once, 2 people tried to connect to the telephone network of the Gavrilenkov house, they were detained by police officers. Gavrilenkov was warned that an attempt was being made on him. But he was skeptical.
However, in 1995, the brothers in two cars drove up to Nikolai’s house on Moskovsky Prospekt. But when Nikolai got out of the car, a killer shot him. Victor began to shoot at the killer, but missed.
The funeral of Nikolai Gavrilenkov
The funeral of the leader of the organized crime group was extremely magnificent and scandalous, he was buried in the Pskov-Pechersky monastery, where only a few were honored to be buried. The bodies there are not buried in the ground, but put in separate niches. Shortly before this, the brothers bought this place for the mother's funeral. There is information that Gavrilenkov donated about 300 million rubles to the monastery. And after his murder, the abbot agreed to bury the criminal authority in the caves.
Almost all the criminal authorities of the northern capital came to the funeral. The believers were extremely indignant at what was happening, and the abbot of the monastery asked the patriarch for resignation. However, the body of Gavrilenkov was left in place, having decided not to bury him again. It still lies in the monastery.
Search for the culprits
The case of finding those responsible for the murder of Gavrilenkov was at an impasse. The first suspect, Kumarin, had never taken revenge on either wine or an attempt on himself. However, he was not found guilty.
It turned out that Valery Gavrisenko decided to take revenge on Gavrilenkov. On the night of December 3, 1995, Gavrisenko was shot dead at the Nevsky Melody restaurant on Sverdlovskaya Embankment.
One by one members of the group were killed. It is known that Verzhbitsky Yuri from the Velikoluksky organized criminal group was killed on Moskovsky Avenue. Although the media did not have any information about this. It is noteworthy that even the photos of the Velikolukskaya organized criminal group are practically absent in the public domain.
Only Viktor Gavrilenkov remained alive. Heavy fire was opened at him, but he survived by throwing himself on the floor in a restaurant. After such an attempt, he was treated in the best clinic of the city, and then realized that he would no longer live in fear, and then flew to Spain. He did not even appear at his mother’s funeral in Velikiye Luki in 1997. And only when Kumarin was arrested, after 12 years, Victor appeared in St. Petersburg. The Spanish authorities put him on the international wanted list.
About Tsvetkova
The prosecutor's office of the Pskov region filed materials on the extradition of a former member of the Velikolukskaya organized crime group, Vitaliy Tsvetkov. He was wanted for criminal prosecution. He himself was put on the international wanted list in 2013, and in 2016 he was detained in Ukrainian territory, where he was detained. He faces up to 20 years in prison.