Alleged Russian gang boss Aslan Gagiyev, accused of 60 murders, is extradited from Austria
Gagiyev is wanted over a series of contract killings, including the assassinations of a mayor and North Ossetia’s deputy premier
An alleged Russian crime boss wanted over a string of contract killings was extradited to Moscow from Austria on Wednesday after losing a long-running legal battle, Russia’s interior ministry said.
Aslan Gagiyev, nicknamed Dzhako, was flown to Russia escorted by police and prison officers, interior ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said, after Austria’s highest court last year rejected his appeal against extradition.
Kommersant business daily reported that Gagiyev was flown out on a regular Aeroflot flight.
The 47-year-old, who fled abroad in 2013, is accused of organising a criminal gang, banditry, murder, weapons trafficking and embezzlement, Volk said. He will be held in custody in Moscow.
Interpol posted a wanted picture of a heavy-set unsmiling man with receding hair and dark eyes.
Russia has accused Gagiyev’s gang of murdering 60 people including Vitaly Karayev, the mayor of the city of Vladikavkaz in the region of North Ossetia, which borders Chechnya in the North Caucasus, as well as the region’s former deputy premier. Both men were shot in their cars in 2008.