The question is closed: colleagues got even for the murder of an incorruptible investigator

Two members of the Orekhovskaya criminal group, who were put on the wanted list 28 years ago, were detained by police officers in the Moscow region. We are talking about the Alyoshin brothers, who were part of the "brigade" of Dmitry Belkin, nicknamed Belok, one of the leaders of the Orekhovskys, who led the Odintsovo unit of the group. Today, Belkin is serving a life sentence. According to investigators, it was he who was directly involved in the murder of Yuri Kerez, a senior investigator at the Special Prosecutor's Office, who was shot dead on October 20, 1998 in the Moscow suburb of the city of Krasnoznamensk. Izvestia recalled how the death of one fearless investigator marked the beginning of the end of the most violent gang of the 90s.

Incorruptible

After graduating from the Golitsyn Border Guard School, Yuri Kerez taught for several years at his native university at the Department of Criminal Law. Then he was appointed a senior investigator in the military special prosecutor's office — his area of responsibility included several closed urban formations. It was there that the Medvedkovsky and Orekhovsky bandits operated.

Kerez was not just a professional, he perfectly mastered the forensic tactics of conducting investigative actions. Working on several episodes of extortion and murder, he not only identified the organizers, but also gathered evidence against the ringleaders. Among other things, he persuaded several bandits to cooperate. What we know today about the "exploits" of the Orekhovsky bandits is largely thanks to him.

The Racketeer Brothers

The Alyoshin brothers were involved in one of the first cases against the Orekhovskys. The victims were the Arefiev couple, who once regularly paid tribute to the brothers from the income from the wellness complex. However, being on the verge of ruin, the couple at some point refused to pay the roof. In response, the bandits burned down their sauna, then shot the apartment door with a machine gun. The Arefievs decided to contact the police. Kerez quickly identified those involved. The lead led the investigator and his colleagues to the leaders of the group, he also figured out the financial flows of the criminal organization.

The evidence gathered was already enough at that time to incriminate several Orekhovskys, in addition to murders and embezzlement, with an article about organizing a criminal community or participating in it (art. 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) — this was new in those years, Valentin Stanovov, an expert on organized crime and author of the book "Notes of an Old Detective", told Izvestia. The bandits found out about the results of Kerez's investigation. The decision to kill the investigator was made by them after Kerez repeatedly refused bribes. He traveled to work by train, led a modest lifestyle, but refused a million dollars without hesitation.

One of the members of the group, a certain Syrov, ended up in Matrosskaya Tishina for this "commercial offer" to a military investigator. After him, another member of the Kremenetsky group was imprisoned in jail. Soon the isolation cells were filled with other members of the criminal community. Some of them agreed to testify about the murders of businessmen in military camps.

Gunshots before the rain

The operatives accompanying the investigation suspected the possibility of an attempt on the investigator's life. Kerez was assigned a bodyguard. But the investigator had let the guard go home on the eve of the tragedy, even though the danger was in the air, Kerez's boss, Vladimir Medvedev, told reporters after the murder. On the evening of October 20, 1998, the killer caught up with the investigator at the entrance of a house in Krasnoznamensk and shot him. The killer escaped from a highly guarded secret town through a hole in a concrete fence, taking a folder with documents taken from the victim. It was not possible to remove the traces, as it began to rain immediately after the massacre. Shortly after the murder of the investigator, the bandits also dealt with Arefyev — he was killed in 1999.

But the suspects were identified fairly quickly. There were no documents of value to the bandits in the briefcase stolen from Kerez — he prudently stopped by the prosecutor's office and locked them in a safe. Belkin was put on the federal wanted list for organizing the murder of Kerez, and Alyoshin's two brothers for participating in an organized criminal community. As for the killer himself, criminal boss Oleg Pronin, nicknamed Al Capone, he was soon caught and sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Pronin later admitted that he had been watching the investigator's house under the guise of a homeless man for several days before the attack. Kerez was in a hurry to get home, where his pregnant wife and four-year-old daughter were waiting for him. The killer came up from behind and shot him in the back of the head. In 2011, by presidential decree, Yuri Kerez was posthumously awarded the Order of Courage.

Who was challenged by Kerez

In August of this year, the case of the "regular" killer Sergei Frolov (Bolton), an accomplice to 16 murders and five attempted murders, was finally resolved in the Supreme Court. He received a life sentence, and his partner Igor Sosnovsky (Chipit) got off with 18 years in prison, handing over former "colleagues." Both were members of the gang of former special forces soldier Pronin (all three came from Kemerovo) and reported directly to Belk.

In 1997, on the orders of Butorin and Belkin, Sosnovsky shot dead a drug-addicted member of the SBU organized crime group and his friend, and Frolov killed a competitor from the Golitsyn group. After that, they both began to receive regular "salaries" in foreign currency. The killers lived in strict secrecy, did not shine in general meetings and carried out only the orders of the leaders.

Crossed the line

It was Pronin who, on Belkin's instructions, shot the investigator. New information available to Izvestia sheds light on the details of the massacre. As follows from the operational materials, the issue of Kerez's murder was finally resolved after the interrogation of Belkin's wife in the case of the group. The woman at home complained to her husband that the investigator was allegedly rude to her. Belkin, who was intoxicated, took this as an insult and gave the go-ahead to his thugs. It is noteworthy that he did not inform the senior in the hierarchy, Sergey Butorin, about his intention.

This murder was a fatal mistake for the entire structure of the Orekhovskys. Belkin hurried to leave Russia and fled to Spain. There he tried to explain to Butorin that the massacre was necessary. But, according to sources, Butorin called Belkin a fool and predicted that this murder would lead to the collapse of the entire group. Indeed, the crime attracted the close attention of the best detectives from all over the country to the gang. Belkin and Butorin fled abroad, but were later extradited and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Wandering and lifelong

As follows from the operational materials, copies of which are available to Izvestia, Dmitry Belkin was put on the federal wanted list on October 26, 1998, six days after the murder of Kerez. At the same time, Belkin was wanted in several criminal cases at once: one was initiated on January 20, 1998, and the other on August 5, 1995.

Belkin has been hiding from justice for more than 12 years, roaming European countries with forged documents. He was detained in Spain in 2011 with a false Bulgarian passport. At the same time, all the time he received monthly transfers from relatives and friends from Russia — 10 thousand euros each. In 2014, the Moscow Regional Court sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The detention of the Alyoshin brothers, who were put on the wanted list back in 1998, puts an end to a case that has dragged on for almost three decades.