YAPONCHIK BARRED FROM AZERBAIJAN
Ervin Mirza
Yeni Musavat, Baku
26 Sep 06
Three criminal bosses who wanted to meet the renowned boss were
detained
As the media reported earlier, the renowned Russian criminal boss,
Vyacheslav Ivankov, nicknamed Yaponchik, visited Armenia. Russian
Internet sites said that he would visit Azerbaijan after Armenia. He
reportedly planned to hold several meetings here and pay tribute to
the grave of [Azerbaijani criminal boss] Hikmat in Kurkandi village of
Sabirabad District [central Azerbaijan]. Hikmat was killed in Moscow.
The sources said that Yaponchik earlier wanted to take part in Hikmat’s
funeral, but Azerbaijani law-enforcement bodies prevented it.
A reliable source told us yesterday [25 September] that Ivankov was
prevented from visiting Azerbaijan from Armenia through Georgia. The
source said that even the Azerbaijani criminal bosses who were ready
to meet him were detained. APA news agency indirectly confirmed the
information we have obtained. It quoted the press service of the
Interior Ministry as saying that the ministry’s department to fight
organized crime rounded up a criminal group. The report said that
the group included a resident of Ganca, Samil Mehdiyev, as well as
residents of Baku – Yunus Nazarov, who is known as a criminal boss
in the underworld and Mubariz Hacizada, who also has authority in
the criminal world. All the three were arrested. A total of 10.124
grams of opium was found on Nazarov, 5 grams of heroin on Hacizada
and 10.045 grams of opium on Mehdiyev.
[Passage omitted: all three have reputation in criminal world]
According to the information we obtained yesterday, Ivankov regretted
being unable to visit Azerbaijan and flew from Tbilisi to Moscow.
Another report said that a criminal boss known as Mamed from Masalli
[District in southern Azerbaijan], who is currently living in Moscow
and is sometimes touted as Hikmat’s successor, is also involved in
the issue and is trying to have the arrested criminal bosses released.