Alchemy of need: underground production of precious metals organized in the Urals
In Yekaterinburg, FSB and Interior Ministry officers suppressed the activities of an organized group that had set up artisanal production of gold and silver of the highest quality in an underground laboratory. The scale of the operation is impressive: precious metals in the form of refined granules worth at least 13.3 million rubles and more than 800 kg of recycled raw materials were seized from illicit trafficking. The four defendants in the case organized not just the purchase of scrap, but a full-fledged technological process for chemical cleaning, having established an interregional sales channel to the metropolitan region. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
Instead of a jewelry workshop, a chemical laboratory
According to the FSB Public Relations Center, the attackers set up a room in Yekaterinburg for a real laboratory. Using chemical reagents, they carried out artisanal refining, the process of purifying precious metals from impurities. The raw materials were radio components, microchips and other electronic components containing precious metals.
The official statement of the department emphasizes that the defendants did not just melt scrap, but carried out chemical purification in order to obtain gold and silver suitable for sale on the black market. This fundamentally distinguishes this scheme from the banal purchase of jewelry from the population. The Black Jewelers have mastered a complex technological cycle that requires special knowledge, equipment, and access to hazardous reagents.
Moscow — sales center, Sverdlovsk region — production workshop
The investigation found that the refined granules from Yekaterinburg were sent to the Moscow region, where Yekaterinburg black jewelers established channels for further sales. The interregional nature of the criminal scheme indicates a high level of organization. In the capital, where the market for buying precious metals is more extensive and anonymous, "pure" goods found their buyers faster and more expensive.
In turn, the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs clarified that during the searches, in addition to ready-made pellets and raw materials, money, equipment and chemical reagents were seized. The total weight of the seized precious metals, according to sources, exceeded 5 kg, and their value is estimated at more than 18 million rubles. All four detainees face up to seven years in prison under Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Illicit trafficking in precious metals").
The trend towards professionalization: from singles to organized crime groups
The case in Yekaterinburg is not an isolated one. Situational analysis shows that the criminal market of precious metals in Russia is moving to a fundamentally new level.
— Today we are witnessing the final stage of the mutation of the "golden" crime, — says criminologist, retired police colonel Valentin Stanovov.
10-15 years ago, "black" gold in Russia was melted down from stolen jewelry and raw materials stolen from the mines. Here, the key task was deformation — melting the products included in the police guidelines into shapeless ingots. It was "low aerobatics," the craft of criminal "stokers." The mines of Magadan, Irkutsk region. Illegal prospectors handed over the gold to dealers. Logistics were more complicated and difficult there, and there was always a smell of gunpowder due to the competition for placers.
What we are seeing now in Yekaterinburg and the Leningrad region is an industrial revolution in the world of crime, Stanovov notes.
— The era of lonely "artisanal chemists" who tried to melt gold from microchips in the kitchen is going back. They are being replaced by organized groups with a clear division of labor: someone is looking for raw materials, someone is refining, someone is responsible for logistics and sales. Production facilities are being built to process hundreds of kilograms of raw materials. Why is this case significant? Because the defendants no longer depend on street crime and the geography of the deposits. They found the perfect "donor material" — electronic scrap. Radio components, microchips, connectors are not stolen property in the police sense," explains Stanovov.
Secondly, motivation has changed. Previously, gold was stolen in order to sell it quickly. Now the criminals are working according to a real business plan. Four people in Yekaterinburg organized a conveyor belt. This is already an organized criminal group with a qualified division of labor: chemical technologists, logisticians to Moscow, suppliers.
Thirdly, the most disturbing aspect is the purity of the product. The 997th sample is the level of the state Goznak, and not an artisanal alloy with lead impurities. This means that it was not thuggy "chemists" with school knowledge who came to the criminal environment, but specialists with technical education.
Examples from neighboring regions confirm that "black refining" is becoming a serious income industry. For example, a 59-year-old man from the village of Kurovitsy was detained in the Leningrad region. His only source of income was the processing of radio-electronic scrap into 997-grade gold. For half a kilogram of gold worth 4.5 million rubles, he received a reward of 110 thousand rubles. This suggests that even on a piece-by-piece basis, earnings are comparable to the annual income of a qualified specialist.
Sophomores with Soviet textbooks
At the same time, from the point of view of chemistry itself, there is nothing cosmic in the described scheme. On condition of anonymity, one of the chemical technologists commented on the situation to Izvestia: "Refining gold from radio components is a banal but extremely effective process of two or three stages: dissolution of metals in aqua regia (a mixture of hydrochloric and nitric acids), subsequent precipitation of gold with special reagents and final calcination. Chemistry students master this technology in their second year."
It is this accessibility that makes fishing so attractive to criminals — high margins are achieved without sophisticated equipment, and all reagents are sold legally. "In addition, using used chemicals, craftsmen quickly destroy trace elements (for example, copper or zinc) that would incriminate them in their handicrafts. If you see 997-grade pellets, it means that the "technologist" in the basement knows a lot about precipitation and washing — but believe me, there are already thousands of "gurus" who have read Soviet textbooks in this craft," the expert adds.
The authorities are tightening their control, realizing the scale of the threat. On September 1, 2026, a law comes into force prohibiting refining organizations from accepting precious metals without confirming their legality. However, as the case in Yekaterinburg shows, criminals are increasingly seeking to close the "raw materials — finished product — sales" chain within their networks, bypassing legal factories.
The criminal world is embracing high technology, turning dangerous chemical production into a high-margin business. And if earlier such "chemical plants" were perceived as exotic, now they are becoming part of a systemic challenge to the economic security of the country.
— In general, I believe that we are on the verge of the fact that "homemade" gold will displace stolen gold from the black market by 60-70% in the next couple of years, — sums up Valentin Stanovov.
Combating this phenomenon requires not only police operations, but also comprehensive control over the turnover of chemicals and secondary raw materials. Otherwise, we risk getting an uncontrolled precious metals market, which is already estimated at billions of rubles.
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