GTA gang


The "GTA gang" was the nickname given to a violent gang of murderers and terrorists located near Moscow, Russia that robbed and murdered occupants of automobiles traveling on the Federal Automobile Road M-4 after stopping them using homemade caltrops. The Russian media dubbed them the "GTA gang" because of the similarity between their violent robberies and the actions of characters in the Grand Theft Auto video game series.
Formed in March 2012 by Ibaydullo Subkhanov to train soldiers for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the gang was ultimately apprehended after a gunfight with police in the village of Udelnaya, near Moscow, on 6 November 2014, during which the gang members were captured and Subkhanov was killed. The gang was responsible for seventeen murders and two serious injuries in Moscow Oblast and Kaluga Oblasts, over the course of two and a half years.

Membership

Leader

Ibaydullo Subkhanov is an Uzbek and a citizen of Osh, Kan. He arrived in Russia in 2004 and moved in with an older woman named Barakt Khasanova at a staff house in Udelnaya. Later, a younger woman named Ranohon Khasanova, who was his unofficial wife, also moved in, accompanied by two daughters from previous relationships. Ranohon Khasanova and her children disappeared on the night of the firefight on 6 November, and are still wanted internationally.
Subkhanov became a radical Islamist in 2011, and later fought for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the Syrian Civil War. When Subkhanov returned to Russia, he met some Tajiks who were members of an extremist pan-Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir. Later, Subkhanov worked as a house/villa servant for a top official in the federal office of the Prosecutor General of Russia, Alexei Staroverov, who had owned the villa since 2010. Subkhanov's mother reportedly also worked in the official's home. Subkhanov was killed by a police sniper during a gunfight on 6 November 2014 at the age of 32.

Timeline of events

Early activity

The gang was founded by Kyrgyz national Ibaydullo Subkhanov in Udelnaya in March 2012. Believing a revolution would soon take place in Uzbekistan, Subkhanov, operating under the alias Rustam Usmanov, established a self-proclaimed jamaat in order to train soldiers for ISIL. As a form of training, Subkhanov would take new members along with him on missions during which they were forced to murder victims as a way of proving their dedication to the cause.
In September 2013, a motorist was killed along the M9 highway. The following month, another man was killed near the town of Istra, and in December, the bodies of four men were discovered in a cabin north of the capital, all suffering from gunshot wounds.
Late into the night of 2 May 2014, an elderly couple, Anatoly and Tatyana Lebedev, were ambushed and killed along the road. The only item reported stolen was an iPad, even though a wallet was clearly visible on the dashboard.
On 30 June 2014, Alexei Tsyganov, a 53-year-old man from Tula Oblast, was found shot dead from his car from Moscow.
On 18 August 2014, the tenth victim of the gang's activities, 31-year-old Albert Yusupov, was found dead along the A-108 motorway. He had called a friend about a burst tire hours before his body was found. The story attracted widespread attention in the media, as all of the victims were killed with 9mm bullets, and their vehicles had been damaged by homemade caltrops.

Media speculation

The Russian media reported on several theories concerning the gang's origins. Some expressed the belief that the killers were satanists because of the black, crucifix-shaped caltrops used in the attacks.
Vladimir Zhirinovsky, leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, theorised the gangsters were Ukrainian nationalists, attempting subversive tactics against the Russian state.
Well known psychologist Mikhail Vinogradov, who worked in the police force during the Soviet era, suggested, after studying photos and videos of the gang leader and two gang members from surveillance cameras, that the gang was composed of experienced professionals from special forces, or former members of some other authority.

Vigilante response

The Russian media also began warning travellers about the gang in the summer of 2014, comparing their violent robberies to the actions of characters in the Grand Theft Auto video game series. Police agencies issued warnings to travellers, advising them not to stop until they reached a police road post or petrol station. Vigilante citizens, outraged by a lack of action from police and other authorities, soon organised armed patrols and started night raids in the areas south of Moscow, checking suspicious cars in an effort to stop the gang.
After warning citizens not to interfere with law enforcement operations, police eventually issued a computer-generated image of a suspect in mid-September 2014. A variety of methods were used by police and other authorities to find the gang, including tracking the stolen iPad signal, and switching off traffic lights.
On 6 November 2014, police raided an estate on Gor'kov Street in Udelnaya, killing Subkhanov and arresting nine other gang members. News agencies reported that the gang had been captured after a fierce gunfight around 3:00 a.m-3:20 a.m. in a private villa situated at Gor'kov street, 39, in the village of Udelnaya, Ramensky District, south-east of Moscow. Subkhanov was killed by a police sniper after reportedly initiating the gunfight by throwing a hand grenade towards the police and a Federal Security Service special team after shouting Allahu Akbar.

Aftermath

Around 60 assorted weapons were found after the gunfire ended and a fire was controlled by firefighters. Most of the firearms were gas pistols remade to fire live bullets from standard 9mm ammunition rounds. All of these pistols had stickers with numbers. Experts found that one of these pistols was used in six murders.
Another 10 people were captured in other places in the Moscow region. On 6 November the main group of the GTA gang was captured at the Dmitrovskoe Highway, north of Moscow. Two Kalashnikov sub-machine guns with 100 rounds were confiscated. Some gang members were on the run until 16 November.
List of suspects - seven-eight males, two-three females :
Males: Absmatov Rashid, Okhunov Nematjohn, Rakhimov Abnunakhob, Ibragimov Dierbek, Akhmadjonov Alerbek, Sultanov Tolibjohn, Mamadchonov Abdumukim, Fazalitdin Khasanov. Khazratkhion Dodokhoev and Zafarjohn Guljamov were arrested later
Females: Sultanova Khosiyat, Sultanova Markhabo, Chekushina Maria.
Later, two other people were arrested in Tajikistan by local police. The main ideologist of the gang, Bair Gulomov, who is the uncle of fellow gang member Zafarjohn Guljamov, was arrested around November 2015. ISIL recruiter, 38 year old Farrukh Azamjohn was reported arrested on 28 June 2016. As of June 2016, the Russian authorities were still in consultation with authorities in Tajikistan about having both suspects dealt with under Russian justice.
In August 2017, it was reported that another four members fled internationally and have yet to be located. In the same month, three members died in an attempt to flee court custody.
Ranohon Khasanova, Subkhanov's unofficial wife, and her two daughters disappeared on the night of the firefight on 6 November and are still wanted internationally.

President's congratulations

Russian President Vladimir Putin personally congratulated the Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokol'cev for a successful investigation against the gang. Putin mentioned that the gang's actions can be described as a terrorist crime. He also applauded the cooperation between the police and the FSB during the investigation and said, "I hope you will get it to the end."

ISIL connected terrorist group

The information about the GTA gang and their connection with ISIL was later leaked to Russian mass media, in Arabic-language news, and abroad. The gang leader, Subkhanov, was probably previously personally connected with ISIL, and kept contact with ISIL after his participation in the Syrian war. He received assistance from the main ideologist of the gang, Bair Gulomov from Tajikistan. Gulomov found and encouraged newcomers. Meanwhile, the war-experienced Subkhanov, who trained and ruled over the other GTA gang members, planned and executed most assaults with at least one newcomer to the gang taken along for an "entrance exam".
The gang members, mainly Tajiks and Uzbeks by ethnicity and citizens of Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and labour migrants mainly working as unofficial illegal taxi drivers, called themselves jaamat. They were on a mission to hunt down infidels on the motor roads as a fast and efficient way of training future ISIL fighters.
A few kilos of RDX explosives were found in the GTA gang's hiding places which indicated that the jaamat was ready to commit an act of terror in the future.

Motive

On 12 November the head representative of the Investigative Committee of Russia Vladimir Markin said that news reports that the gang members acted like the heroes of the computer game GTA were unfounded, maintaining the gang's motivation was robbery. He did not specify when and how much money they took. These discrepancies in the gang's motives were widely discussed in Russia and abroad, but not in official mainstream media in Russia. There was mention in an article in which the connection between labour migrants' hate towards Russian citizens and their eager willingness to serve ISIL was discussed. This was caused by migrants' low and unstable salaries, slave-like working conditions and their unprotected, semi-official half-illegal lives in Russia.

Top functionary from the Prosecutor Office involved

Alexei Staroverov, head of the Prosecutor General of Russia Office administration, was suspended temporarily while an internal investigation is carried out. This was confirmed by his office 12 November 2014. One day later, the head of IC Markin confirmed that Staroverov was being questioned by IC as a witness regarding the GTA gang. The criminal case concerning the illegal possession of weapons and ammunition found in his villa was initiated against him on 13 November.
He and his wife's income combined was more than 48 million rubles, but the villa itself and the land around it, officially belonged to their underage son, a typical way to hide capital and real estate. It was purchased in 2010. Deputy Prosecutor General Viktor Grin had briskly intervened, issuing a personal order to close the criminal case against Alexei Staroverov as a harsh move in a long-running conflict between the Russian Investigative Committee and Prosecutor General's Office. Alexey Staroverov became ill and was hospitalised with heart problems around 20 November. He had also asked to resign. The head of the Cardiology Department where Staroverov spent some time recovering was Dr. Konstantin Lyadov, who was also included nn the list of witnesses questioned about the GTA gang by IC. Lyadov owns a villa at the village of Pozdnyakovo, in the Krasnogorsk district, where another member of the GTA gang, Fazalitdin Khasanov made weapons and caltrops for his friends. Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny used the GTA gang connection to Staroverov to blame the corrupt prosecutors with cover-up of ISIL terrorists in his famous anti-corruption video called Chaika after the acting Prosecutor General of Russia Yury Chaika.