vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #151 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Gunmen shot and killed local Mafia boss Mikhail "Mikho" Osipov as he walked into the Hyundai Hotel at 10 p.m. Oct. 4, creating a power vacuum that some fear will open the region to criminals from around Russia eager to cash in on the area's wealth of resources.

Osipov, 47, was one of the city's two remaining Mafia bosses, whose ranks dwindled with the killing of Anatoly Kovalyov at the Royal Park Casino last summer. A fourth crime boss, Sergei Baulo, died in a suspicious diving accident last year.

Osipov was nearby when Kovalyov was shot by a lone gunman from the casino rooftop, and Osipov later claimed that he, not Kovalyov, was the intended target, say news reports.

Osipov's wasn't the only violent death over the weekend. Vladimir Dmitriev, 45, the general director of the Pacific Trading House, was shot dead outside his apartment building Oct. 5, but that killing wasn't mob-related, according to news reports.

Police report that Osipov was entering the hotel when a man ran from the hotel lobby and shot him with a Russian TT pistol. As Osipov fell, a vehicle dropped off another man wielding an AK-47, who shot him again. Authorities found approximately ten bullet wounds in Osipov's head and chest.

Police also suspect that a third attacker may have been involved in the killing. Along with the AK-47 and TT shells, police also found cartridges from a .45 pistol. Video cameras inside the hotel lobby show one attacker leaving the hotel, but it is impossible to make out how many others were outside, police say. The identity of the two confirmed assailants is still unknown, as they wore hats to obscure their faces.

Hotel security guards were patrolling the building at the time of the attack, police say. Still, the incident may lead hotel officials to concentrate more on protecting the building's exterior, rather than only protecting the inside.

"We're going to pay more attention to the entrance," said Hotel marketing director Kyeong-Jong Lee. "Of course we cannot block the parking lot but we are considering installing card machines in the future."

The Leninsky District Prosecutor's Office and the city's Organized Crime Prevention Unit are investigating the case. Police officers raided local nightspots after the slaying, and confiscated the hotel tapes on Sunday morning.

Osipov was the leader of what was known as "the Family," Primorye's largest criminal organization, newspapers reported. Local journalists say he made much of his money by founding nightclubs and businesses, and is believed to have had a significant stake in the Primorye fishing and fuel industries. Osipov's group controlled criminal activity in Vladivostok, Artyom, Arseniev, Dalnegorsk, Spaskk Dalny, and Ussurisk.

An attorney familiar with organized crime said Osipov's death may spark a criminal feud in the region. Before the deaths of Kovalyov and Osipov, the area was strictly divided among the four Mafia bosses, said the source, who asked to remain anonymous. As a result of this control, the krai Mafia maintained relative peace within the region, and kept outsiders from the rest of Russia at bay.

Now, however, the Mafia establishment is in disarray, leaving it exposed to external pressure. The killing may have been ordered by Moscow bosses eager to stake a claim in the local fishing industry, said the source. When Osipov was in Moscow earlier this year, police reported they prevented an assassination attempt on his life.

Osipov was born in Vladivostok, and studied as an engineer. Fifteen years ago he was convicted of speculation and went to prison for five years. When he returned to Vladivostok, Osipov worked his way up the criminal hierarchy, at one point controlling the Mafia's city purse, a fund set up to bribe officials and support the families of criminals in prison.

Sources close to Osipov say that he spent the last year in constant fear that he would be ambushed, and was rumored to have begun selling off businesses and preparing to leave Vladivostok permanently.