OREANDA-NEWS The Novgorod Regional Court of Veliky Novgorod sentenced five former gang members to 18 to 24 years in prison. About this was reported by the press service of the regional prosecutor's office.

The investigation and the court established that in July 2002, the criminal authority created an armed group in Veliky Novgorod, which included five people: Sergey Zabotin, Andrey Kozlov, Andrey Orlov, Valery Rybakov and Sergey Sergeev. They attacked the residents of the region in order to gain control over the commercial structures of the region.

In particular, in 2002, Sergeev and Kozlov, on the instructions of the gang leader, opened fire on the director of the Northwest Investment and Industrial Center LLC, and in 2005, Rybakov, Orlov, Zabotin and Sergeev dealt with an entrepreneur who was engaged in logging. Also in 2009, Sergeev took the life of the director of Dyukavto LLC.

Earlier it was reported that a gang of Russians wantonly staged a bloody massacre of passers-by.