The deputy chief of the Novosibirsk region branch of the Federal Drug Control Service was charged with abuse of authority over his alleged collaboration with a local mafia group, the Investigative Committee said on its web site Thursday.
Andrei Andreyev worked for years with the group, created by a local businessman Alexander Trunov, earning at least $20,000 for illegal services he rendered to the gangsters, the committee said, without elaborating.
Trunov and his men are linked to several contract hits carried out in Novosibirsk from 1998 to 2004. Andreyev was arrested two months ago but only charged now to avoid his release from detention, a committee spokesman said, Interfax reported.
(MT)
