vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #163 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Police arrest notorious Primorye don

Vladivostok police arrested the alleged leader of a Primorye criminal group on March 6, newspapers reported. Pavel Samoylenko, 35, was indicted on a number of extortion charges reportedly committed in 1995 and 1996. Samoylenko’s gang allegedly kidnapped businessmen from around the krai, brought them to Vladivostok, and tortured them or locked them in building basements and freezers. Samoylenko may face up to 12 years in prison.

Lieutenant disappears with the loot

The financial head of a military unit in Vladivostok disappeared March 10 with 190,000 rubles ($31,300) in cash that was intended to pay salaries to his fellow servicemen. Sr. Lt. Alexei Korsakov had withdrawn the money from a bank. His girlfriend says some of the officer’s clothes disappeared too. Police say Korsakov either was the victim of a crime or accident, or he stole the money. He had served in the unit for two months and was known as a quiet loner, his associates said.

Cops find explosives in the captain’s cabin

Police found ammunition and explosives in the captain’s cabin on the Gangut fishing trawler March 14, according to the Primorye Directorate for Civil Defense and Emergencies. The trawler was seized the same day in Vrangel Bay near Nakhodka. A police raid recovered 70 shells, 10 kilograms of gunpowder, grenades, drugs, and other materials.