Rich guests of Moscow hotels robbed by Chechen criminal group

The group was conducting its activities in Moscow for more than six months

Police officers of the Moscow criminal investigation department nabbed a group of perpetrators, who attacked Moscow hotel guests. Previously convicted ethnic Chechens made the core of the group. Police officers said that the criminals had committed tens of crimes.

The group was conducting its activities in Moscow for more than six months. As a rule, they robbed three- or four-star hotel guests. Their principle of action was very simple: those, who come to Moscow, definitely have some money.

Magomed-Temi Ibishev, 34, was the organizer and the leader of the gang. Other members of the group were in their thirties too. The criminals got acquainted with each other in a colony, where they served sentences for robbery and drug trafficking. In the colony they agreed to organize their own joint “business.” When they were released from jail, they involved two other men, who also had prior conviction record for drug trafficking.

Police officers said that the group committed crimes in the evenings. They would look for a potential victim in hotel restaurants and bars. At first they estimated the welfare of a victim by his or her clothes and the ordered dishes. As soon as one of the criminal's attention was attracted to a guest, he would signal his accomplices. After that the criminals would carefully follow the victim to the room. The bandits would break in under the pretext of room service. Yielding knives, they would beat the guest, tied him or her up and steal everything they could.

The group has robbed three guests of Moscow hotels this month: a Malaysian national, a Russian professor from Vladivostok, and a forwarding agent from Kazan.

Police officers are sure that it is not the complete list of the crimes committed by the group. The majority of their victims were left in the city without any money and clothes – they did not even want to report about it to the police, as they were too busy with finding a way to return home.