vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #553 / Crime watch / Reading article...

A known Primorye businessman Yuri Trifonov, who is allegedly related to local crime bosses, was arrested on January 19 right in the court hall of the Soviet District court in Vladivostok on charges of extortion. Another two of his accomplices were also put under arrest following the prosecutor’s request.

Trifonov, 53, was pressing a private businessman to hand over to him the businessman’s enterprise. The businessman, whose name was not revealed, applied to Primorye’s department for fighting organized crime for help. Trifonov is known to police under his mob nickname ‘Trifon”.

Police collected evidence and Trifonov was put under arrest in the court hall. Two of his accomplices, known as ‘Butuz’ and ‘Kvint’, were also arrested.

Vitaly Nomokonov in his book ‘Organized crime of the Russian Far East’ writes that at the start of the 1990s Trifonov was one of the mafia bosses of Vladivostok. He is known to have had battles over power with the notorious Far Eastern mobster Yevgeny Vasin nicknamed Jam.

Trifonov survived several murder attempts ordered by his rivals. The most recently known attack against him occurred in February of 2004 when his jeep was blown up. Trifonov did not incur any injuries from the explosion.