MOSCOW, July 17 (RIA Novosti) – Russian police reported Wednesday that their Hungarian colleagues have detained in an EU-wide sting operation an alleged mafia kingpin of Georgian origin suspected of murder.
Merab Jangveladze, nicknamed Merab Sukhumsky in Russian, was detained at a Budapest hotel as part of a crackdown on the Georgian Kutaisi criminal clan across several European countries, Russia’s Interior Ministry reported Wednesday. He is suspected of having committed a murder in Italy.
Earlier this week, Rosbalt news agency reported that Jangveladze was suspected of involvement in the killing of the head of a rival clan, Aslan Usoyan – also known in the criminal world as Gramps Khasan – who was fatally wounded by a sniper outside a downtown Moscow restaurant in January.
Late last month, the European Union police agency Europol reported that seven suspects from the Kutaisi clan had been detained in Italy, along with two in the Czech Republic, one in France, five in Lithuania, two in Portugal and one in Hungary. No names were provided at that time.
Russian police said Wednesday that they are currently cooperating with the Italian police to clamp down on the Kutaisi clan, whose members are suspected of criminal activity across the EU.
