The men who killed a Russian police detective last year were reportedly hired on the Darknet for 1 million rubles

Sources tell the BBC Russian Service that someone paid 1 million rubles ($15,215) to arrange the murder of Interior Ministry detective Evgeniya Shishkina last October, hiring the gunman through the Darknet. Shishkina was shot twice outside her home in the town of Arkhangelskoye on October 10, 2018, as she was leaving her apartment building and walking toward the parking lot, on her way to work. She was a lieutenant colonel in the police, rising from inspector in the Moscow Railway Special Transport Department to senior detective in the Major Cases Division.

On March 7, federal investigators in St. Petersburg announced the detention of two suspects in Shishkina’s case. According to an official statement, the man who carried out the killing is named Abdulaziz (Abdul) Abdulazizov, a 19-year-old first-year student at a local social medicine institute. The second man in custody is a 17-year-old, 10th- student suspected of acting as an accomplice in the crime. The minor’s name has not been released to the public, but the BBC says his initials are “A.G.”

According to the BBC’s sources, the suspect “A.G.” accessed the Darknet in August 2018, writing in a forum dedicated primarily to the illegal sale of drugs that he was seeking temporary employment. Seventeen years old at the time and in 10th grade, he got a response the following month from an individual who outlined the details of a job using an unnamed instant messenger. The BBC’s sources suspect that this customer owns a store that trades on the same Darknet website.

To carry out the murder, the young student allegedly involved his friend and neighbor, Abdul Abdulazizov. They were reportedly paid 1 million rubles to murder Evgeniya Shishkina: A.G. gave 60 percent to Abdulazizov and kept the rest for himself, as a mediation fee. Abdulazizov shot Shishkina with a modified traumatic handgun, which he collected from a “dropsite” outside Moscow. He obtained the ammunition from a hotel room rented specially for the exchange in Krasnogorsk, which neighbors Arkhangelskoye. The medical student then waited for Shishkina in the parking lot outside her home and shot her when she came out to her car.

The BBC’s sources with knowledge of the investigation say Abdulazizov has divulged the details of Shishkina’s murder. Immediately after he was detained, however, he denied any role in the crime, saying that he’s rarely ever in Moscow. The last time he was in the city, he says, was “for a concert.” According to the BBC, Abdulazizov may have attended a performance by the rappers Killstation and Brennan Savage, which took place the same day Shishkina was killed.

Abdulazizov’s mother told the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda that her son first met the other suspect in the case last summer, when the two started skateboarding together. She says she doesn’t believe her son is capable of murder. “He’s a good boy, compassionate and sensitive… He’s just not capable of killing someone! He didn’t have any weapon with him, except for a BB gun,” she said. The 17-year-old suspect’s father was present during his interrogation and acted as his legal representative in court. He declined to speak to journalists. Both suspects have been arrested and placed in jail.