Crime Groups Collaborate to Grab More Gold

Crimes involving theft of gold increased sixfold over the last nine years, causing serious damage to the economic interests of Russia, a high ranking Interior Ministry official said Tuesday."The continuing collapse of the gold-extraction industry stimulates the development of the black market of precious metals," Major General Ivan Sardak, deputy head of the economic crimes investigation department, said at a press conference.In 1993 the ministry confiscated from criminals 253 kilograms of gold and 2,000 kilograms of silver compared with 42 kilograms of gold and 640 kilograms of silver in 1984.Thefts have continued at about the same rate over the first five months of this year, Sardak said, with police confiscating 102 kilograms of gold and 1,400 kilograms of silver with a total worth of 9 billion rubles ($4.5 million). Over the same period there were 3,801 thefts of precious metals, compared with 5,881 last year.Sardak said police had arrested four organized crime groups in the Magadansky region in January and charged them with carrying out 15 attacks on gold mines over 1992-1993. Police confiscated 200 kilograms of gold and 80 firearms during the arrests, he said."Because of the high secrecy of these crimes we solve only 5 to 10 percent of them," he said. "Therefore, we can only conjecture about the real damage to Russia caused by these crimes."Sardak said the republic of Sakha and the Magadansky, Chitinsky and Primorsky regions were most affected by theft of precious metals. Organized crime families have divided up the regions for maximum profits, he added. "These families present the most serious danger," he said making a veiled reference to corruption among guards and officials at the mines.The families "organize purchases of precious metals by making illegal contacts with guards and local officials," he said. He did not provide details.Sardak said crime families had organized "each link" in the transportation and resale of precious metals in different regions of the country.Despite the increase of thefts of precious metals, he said, the security at gold mines is very poor with the methods and technology remaining unchanged for the last half century.Guards, usually pensioners, are poorly paid and badly equipped, he said. Sardak said it was not enough to use only "police measures" to stabilize the situation at the mines. He called for the State Duma to pass new laws to place responsibility on directors.