BAKU (Sputnik) — A racketeering ring consisting of journalists has been dismantled in Azerbaijan after allegedly extorting money from public servants and businessmen, the Azeri State Security Service said Saturday.
"The State Security Service has launched a criminal inquiry into a group of racketeers who ran outlets under the guise of being journalists," the security agency said in a statement.
The suspects are accused of setting up victims' dates with women and recording the sexual intercourse to blackmail them into giving up large sums of money under the threat of being exposed in the media.
The Azeri police arrested the editor-in-chief of the Bizim Dovr newspaper and several of his employees, who are said to have confessed their role in many cases of sextortion.
