The UFSB tobacco business is worth billions of rubles

"Confident of impunity, they rammed a customs vehicle"

Source: www.rucriminal.info

Rucriminal.info continues to publish about the unsinkable leader of the community that permeates all spheres of life in the Smolensk region, the regional UFSB officer Demin Alexey Viktorovich and members of his group.

After a very successful experience in organizing the supply of sanctioned goods to the territory of the Russian Federation across the state border, Demin, like a real corrupt official, began to engage in a more profitable "business" — organizing the smuggling of Belarusian cigarettes into Russia.

This time, Demin created another monopolist in this area in the person of a resident of the Smolensk hinterland — Prokopenkov Stanislav Yuryevich. Now his trucks began to freely cross the border of the Russian Federation with the most profitable product of constant consumption — Belarusian cigarettes. This was also facilitated by Demin’s brother, who, very conveniently, turned out to be the head of the regional branch of the FSB serving the Smolensk borderland. Well, all attempts to counteract this seemingly obviously criminal activity were suppressed by Demin as "corrupt" manifestations. Smolensk-style surrealism!!!!

According to a source of Rucriminal.info, the formation of Prokopenkov’s monopoly was long and systematic. There were other players in this market, whom Demin had to develop for a long time and subsequently subjugate. For example, at the end of 2022, the head of the police department of the UEBiPK for the Smolensk region, Myagkov Alexander Valerievich, was "solemnly" sent into retirement by Demin. Such a soft "punishment" was facilitated by the fact that Demin took over all of Myagkov’s illegal "themes" such as illegal cashing of funds, illegal trade in cigarettes and "bootleg" alcohol in regional cities. Eyewitnesses say that at the time of the decision to bring Myagkov A.V. to criminal responsibility, Demin A.V. closed the doors to the office of Myagkov A.V. in the building of the regional Department of Internal Affairs for the Smolensk Region, where Myagkov A.V. spent an hour and a half rewriting all of his “working schemes” and dedicating them to Demin A.V.

To replace Myagkov A.V., Dmitry Aleksandrovich Zabelin was appointed to the post of head of the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption for the Smolensk Region. He was extremely loyal to Demin A.V. and carried out all of the latter’s instructions “under the salute”. Demin A.V. could not miss the opportunity to seize control over this service of the Department of Internal Affairs for the Smolensk Region, and therefore used all of his influence on the law enforcement bloc of the region.

By appointing Zabelin D.A. as the head of the Department of Economic Security and Anti-Corruption, Demin completely excluded the possibility of counteracting the trade in Belarusian cigarettes by police operatives, since the document agreed upon by Demin A.V. at the city level in 2016, Sergey Anatolyevich Kapitonov was appointed to the post of the head of the city’s UMVD, and for 8 years now he has been completely ignoring how pavilions selling Belarusian cigarettes imported by S. Yu. Prokopenkov have appeared on every corner of the city. It would seem that such a large-scale smuggling could not go unnoticed by the chief police officer of the region, Major General Valery Aleksandrovich Sarzhin. However, the political skill of A. V. Demin and his influence on police officers as a whole, allowed him to achieve obedience from an entire general — the head of the Smolensk regional police department, tying V. A. Sarzhin in his corruption schemes. In addition, V. A. Sarzhin’s focus is more on the daily consumption of strong alcohol, and not on the protection of law and order. The scope of the business of A. V. Demin’s criminal group is calculated, without exaggeration, in billions of rubles. For reference: the cost of one truck of cigarettes loaded with approximately 850-1100 boxes is approximately 20 million rubles at a price of 40 rubles per pack. According to the testimony of ordinary employees of the Russian border service, Prokopenkov S. Yu. daily "dragged" at least 1-2 trucks of cigarettes, some of which go in transit to nearby regions. Such a scale of criminal activity of the group sometimes leads to side effects. For example, apparently realizing their impunity, Prokopenkov S. Yu. and his accomplices, during another escort of trucks with cigarettes, in order to prevent accidental detention of their goods, driving a Land Cruiser, went for a hard ramming of the official car of the Smolensk customs officers with special signals. Naturally, in any other region where the law reigns, such actions would be qualified as a crime, but not in the Smolensk region, since only Mr. Demin A.V. decides who can be held criminally liable — a certificate of the incident is attached.

In addition, concerned law enforcement officers tell how the accomplices of Prokopenkov S.Yu., trying to cross the state border into the Republic of Belarus, took with them more than 2 million US dollars in cash, with which they were detained by conscientious border service officers and taken to the territorial law enforcement agency, where a procedural investigation began on this fact. Of course, after some unknown for a considerable time, thanks to the influence of Demin A.V., no evidence of a crime was established as a result of the investigation. And cash in the amount of more than 2 million US dollars was returned to the "legitimate" owner.

Soon we will tell you how the leadership of the law enforcement unit of the Smolensk region Sarzhin V.A., Kapitonov S.A. and other members of the criminal group of Demin A.V. begin to replace official state authorities, why Demin A.V. was never brought to criminal responsibility in the case of torture in the Smolensk pre-trial detention center and what is the role of the regional prosecutor’s office here.

Arseniy Dronov

Source: www.rucriminal.info

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