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Charges dropped against a top Russian investigator accused of taking a bribe from a mafia boss

Source: RIA Novosti

The Federal Security Service has reportedly dropped its bribery charges against Investigative Committee Colonel Alexander Lamonov, the deputy head of the agency’s Internal Investigations Division who supposedly accepted money from the mafia boss Zakhariy Kalashov (nicknamed “Young Shakro”). 

Federal agents previously accused Lamonov and another two Investigative Committee officers of taking a bribe to help free one of Kalashov’s associates from a detention center.

In July 2016, federal agents detained Lamonov along with fellow high-ranking Investigative Committee officers Denis Nikandrov and Mikhail Maksimenko on suspicion of accepting €500,000 ($611,480) to close a criminal case against Andrey Kochuikov (known as “The Italian”), one of Kalashov’s associates. Kochuikov had been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting in December 2015 at a Moscow cafe.

In early December 2017, the news agency TASS reported that Lamonov and Nikandrov had reached a deal with investigators that would expedite their cases. Maksimenko’s trial, on the other hand, will be considered separately.

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