Corrupted policemen sold stolen foreign vehicles at $5,000

Special operation was conducted to arrest the corrupted officers of Russian Traffic Police.
Investigators from the Office of General Public Prosecutor and the policemen of the Inner Security Department of Russian Interior Ministry (totally 150 people) were working in the headquarters of Moscow Traffic Police and the office of the Traffic Police Special Battalion on Dmitrovsky Highway.  The operation started with the arrest of the Traffic Police officer Alexander Morozov.  He, along with his three accomplices (not policemen) sold to the Inner Security Department officer who pretended to be an ordinary citizen, Volkswagen Golf vehicle at $4,200. This vehicle was stolen.

Previously the officer (working on the investigators’ assignment), purchased another Volkswagen Golf  and two Volkswagen Passat vehicles from these men.  These vehicles became the evidence of their criminal activity.

Policemen and their accomplices stole foreign-made trucks and motor-cars. After this, the numbers on the vehicles’ bodies were changed, the vehicles were registered and sold. Customers were aware that the vehicles had been stolen, but were tempted by low prices – they paid only 30 percent of the real price.  

After arresting Alexander Morozov, the police arrested suspects in the city Moscow and Moscow region and in city Nizhny Novgorod. When the policemen approached Traffic Police headquarters, many of its employees decided to leave for home.  They left their foreign vehicles right there, near the headquarters. The policemen conducted a search of the 3 department, and the inspector on registering vehicles Yury Morozov was arrested in his office. He allegedly registered the stolen vehicles.

The police received information on the car thieves 4 years ago. The law-enforcers heard the news that many foreign vehicles in Moscow started to be sold at the prices 3-4 times cheaper than they really cost. Soon the police found out that a group of car thieves was operating in several regions of Central Russia, they concentrated on stealing German vehicles such as Volkswagen, Mercedes, Audi and different kinds of Jeeps. The traffic policemen were very precautious, they not only scanned the radio air in the area where they planned to steal vehicles, but also were accompanying the stolen car in the police vehicles to safe areas. Then the stage of engraving new numbers on the car body followed. Earlier Russian car thieves  asked Polish thieves for consultation on the numbers engraving. They stole predominantly German cars because it was easier to engrave new numbers on them.

The investigation detected that the traffic policemen from different regions had good communication, they arranged transporting vehicles from one region to another and sent each other necessary papers for legalizing the vehicles. 

In many cases the customer purchased many cheap stolen vehicles to sell them in some distant regions of Russia at higher prices.  Sometimes the vehicles were bought by policemen.

Shortly before the operation, the investigators searched some police stations in the city of Moscow and Moscow region, and found many stolen vehicles. On average, the criminal group sold 3-4 stolen cars a day, at $5,000 each.

Source: Russian media