Police have scored two successes in a battle against what they describe as "highly professional" criminal gangs working in Moscow who kidnap young children and demand large ransoms for their return.
One of the children, the 10-year-old son of a Georgian businessman identified only as Bezhan, was freed in a Wednesday midnight raid on an apartment in south Moscow after having been kept chained to a radiator by his captors for 26 days, Moscow organized crime department spokesman Andrei Pashkevich said Friday.
The other child, 8-year-old Nina Logvinenko, daughter of a prominent businessman from Kharkov, Ukraine, was liberated after a dawn police raid in west Moscow, on March 5, after nearly three months of captivity. In both cases, large ransoms had been demanded from the parents.
Bezhan was snatched by two men in the courtyard of his home on Malenkovskaya Ulitsa as he walked home from school on Feb. 14, Pashkevich said, and bundled into a gray Zhiguli. Within a day, his father received a demand for ransom of $1 million for the safe return of his son and a warning not to publicize the kidnapping. The family's telephones were tapped by an anti-terrorist group from the Federal Security Service while the father played for time, claiming to the kidnappers who telephoned him 10 times a week that he was having difficulty collecting the cash.
Organized crime police, meanwhile, established "through their own channels" the whereabouts of the gang and, on Tuesday night, tailed and arrested three Georgian suspects, Pashkevich said. He would not disclose details of how police had located the gang.
Shortly after the arrest of the three suspects, Pashkevich continued, a rapid reaction team raided a second floor apartment on Odesskaya Ulitsa, where they found Bezhan handcuffed to a radiator and two Georgian guards, one of whom attempted to jump out of the window during the raid.
Although all organized crime department attempts to free hostages over the last two years have been successful, Pashkevich claimed, the victims' families often fear that the authorities' involvement will endanger their relatives' lives.
The kidnapping of Nina Logvinenko, for instance, was unreported for two months while the girl's father, Alexander Logvinenko, president of one of Kharkov's most prominent companies, haggled with the kidnappers over the $500,000 ransom they demanded. Logvinenko met regularly with Omlet Bungatov, a former GAI officer from Tbilisi who represented the gang, to negotiate a more reasonable sum, Pashkevich said.
When the Kharkov police found out about the kidnapping at the end of February through other sources and mounted a city-wide search, the child was taken to Moscow. The girl's father met Bungatov again at Moscow's Akademicheskaya hotel, this time accompanied by an FSB surveillance team. Logvinenko gave Bungatov a stuffed animal belonging to his daughter and asked that she be photographed with it as proof that she was still alive. The photo was provided within 24 hours.
A few days later, Pashkevich continued, she was tracked down by police to an apartment in west Moscow, which was raided and one Ukrainian woman, Lyudmila Ludan, was arrested. Three other Ukrainians were detained in Kharkov, and Bungatov was arrested at Sheremetyevo airport March 9 after returning from Greece. He was lured back to Moscow by a hoax message delivered by the FSB .
Though these two cases show "increasing sophistication and professionalism" by kidnappers, Pashkevich said that the organized crime department's anti-kidnapping strategies had also improved.
Reported cases of kidnapping in Moscow have fallen from a 1995 high of 280 cases (including 14 children) to 195 in 1996 (including 7 children), said Pashkevich. There have been three child kidnapping cases this year, he said, including an "amateurish" two-day hostage-taking of a 13-year-old, which was "quickly resolved."
One of the children, the 10-year-old son of a Georgian businessman identified only as Bezhan, was freed in a Wednesday midnight raid on an apartment in south Moscow after having been kept chained to a radiator by his captors for 26 days, Moscow organized crime department spokesman Andrei Pashkevich said Friday.
The other child, 8-year-old Nina Logvinenko, daughter of a prominent businessman from Kharkov, Ukraine, was liberated after a dawn police raid in west Moscow, on March 5, after nearly three months of captivity. In both cases, large ransoms had been demanded from the parents.
Bezhan was snatched by two men in the courtyard of his home on Malenkovskaya Ulitsa as he walked home from school on Feb. 14, Pashkevich said, and bundled into a gray Zhiguli. Within a day, his father received a demand for ransom of $1 million for the safe return of his son and a warning not to publicize the kidnapping. The family's telephones were tapped by an anti-terrorist group from the Federal Security Service while the father played for time, claiming to the kidnappers who telephoned him 10 times a week that he was having difficulty collecting the cash.
Organized crime police, meanwhile, established "through their own channels" the whereabouts of the gang and, on Tuesday night, tailed and arrested three Georgian suspects, Pashkevich said. He would not disclose details of how police had located the gang.
Shortly after the arrest of the three suspects, Pashkevich continued, a rapid reaction team raided a second floor apartment on Odesskaya Ulitsa, where they found Bezhan handcuffed to a radiator and two Georgian guards, one of whom attempted to jump out of the window during the raid.
Although all organized crime department attempts to free hostages over the last two years have been successful, Pashkevich claimed, the victims' families often fear that the authorities' involvement will endanger their relatives' lives.
The kidnapping of Nina Logvinenko, for instance, was unreported for two months while the girl's father, Alexander Logvinenko, president of one of Kharkov's most prominent companies, haggled with the kidnappers over the $500,000 ransom they demanded. Logvinenko met regularly with Omlet Bungatov, a former GAI officer from Tbilisi who represented the gang, to negotiate a more reasonable sum, Pashkevich said.
When the Kharkov police found out about the kidnapping at the end of February through other sources and mounted a city-wide search, the child was taken to Moscow. The girl's father met Bungatov again at Moscow's Akademicheskaya hotel, this time accompanied by an FSB surveillance team. Logvinenko gave Bungatov a stuffed animal belonging to his daughter and asked that she be photographed with it as proof that she was still alive. The photo was provided within 24 hours.
A few days later, Pashkevich continued, she was tracked down by police to an apartment in west Moscow, which was raided and one Ukrainian woman, Lyudmila Ludan, was arrested. Three other Ukrainians were detained in Kharkov, and Bungatov was arrested at Sheremetyevo airport March 9 after returning from Greece. He was lured back to Moscow by a hoax message delivered by the FSB .
Though these two cases show "increasing sophistication and professionalism" by kidnappers, Pashkevich said that the organized crime department's anti-kidnapping strategies had also improved.
Reported cases of kidnapping in Moscow have fallen from a 1995 high of 280 cases (including 14 children) to 195 in 1996 (including 7 children), said Pashkevich. There have been three child kidnapping cases this year, he said, including an "amateurish" two-day hostage-taking of a 13-year-old, which was "quickly resolved."
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