Russia's bloodiest godfather behind 60 murders jailed, but fathers 22 kids first

14 September 2023 , 18:54

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Aslan 'Dzhako' Gagiev was found guilty of heading a criminal organisation (Image: Newsflash)

A man with 22 children known as Russia's bloodiest godfather, responsible for at least 60 brutal gangland murders, has been jailed for life.

Aslan 'Dzhako' Gagiev oversaw a ruthless Moscow mafia operation dubbed 'The Family' that was founded in 2004 and whose members enjoyed torturing their victims to death. His gang initially included about 15 people, and then it grew to 70. Among them were police officers, prosecutors, and even high-ranking security officials who helped keep the gang safe.

Many of the killers had combat experience in the conflicts in the North Caucasus, and because of its size and the presence of patrons at the very highest level in the police and courts, the gang could commit the most notorious crimes but remained unpunished for a long time.

Aslan Gagiev with a child (Newsflash)

Gagiev used his connections to convince people who joined the gang that they were a secretly sanctioned operation working for the FSB that was ridding the country of corrupt people and crooks, with many believing that they would not face prosecution right up until they were eventually jailed.

Despite these horrors, he apparently had a soft spot for children, with 22 of his own. He also offered a service to wealthy parents whose children had been kidnapped, where the kids would be recovered and the kidnappers eliminated. In reality, it was also a plot to get rid of his rivals. Judges at the Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don gave Gagiev the harshest possible sentence under Russian law today.

Barrel with concrete where the body of banker Oleg Novoseltsev was found (Moskovsky Komsomolets / east2west news)

The mobster will spend his life sentence in a grim special regime colony, where inmates face the toughest conditions possible. Gagiev was found guilty of heading a criminal organisation, multiple murders and illegal trafficking in weapons and ammunition. During his brutal reign, one victim whom he killed was found entombed in a concrete block. The body had been thrown in a Moscow canal and only DNA analysis helped determine that it was banker Oleg Novoselsky.

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The mobster will spend his life sentence in a grim special regime colony (Newsflash)

Many of the organisation's victims were high-ranking Russian officials and prominent businessmen and bankers like Oleg who was chairman of the board of the Kutuzovsky bank. Others included the owner of the National Capital Bank Dmitry Plytnik, the owner of the Kredittrust Bank Alexander Slesarev, whose family was shot along with him, including his daughter and seven-year-old niece, and the chairman of the board of the bank National Capital Philip Degtyarev.

Killer Aslan Gagiev with his family (Crimerussia.com / east2west news)

The 52-year-old godfather's lawyers had requested his acquittal despite overwhelming evidence, according to local media.
His gangland slaughter began with the murders of prominent bankers in Moscow. Gagiev and his henchmen torture them to force them to transfer ownership of their properties to his growing criminal empire. After his victims complied, they were brutally killed.

When the police began investigating the crime clan, they began to target the investigators and politicians, like the Mayor of Vladikavkaz, Vitaly Karaev. Gagiev also hired out his henchmen as contract killers. One notorious killing was when prosecutor Olga Shevtsova asked him to assassinate her estranged husband Alexander Leonov during divorce negotiations. Gagiev did not even charge her for carrying out the murder, saying it was a professional courtesy to the prosecutor, who was later jailed for 12 years.

Aslan Gagiyev now (Komsomolskaya Pravda / east2west news)

Aslan Gagiyev as a young man (Stringer-News / east2west news)

After Gagiev's trial began, his henchmen fled and tried to hide out in far-flung locations all over the world. Even Gagiev had fled abroad but was detained in Austria in 2015 and it was only in 2018 that he was extradited to Moscow. His right-hand man Artur Dzhioev fled to Greece where he hid as a Bulgarian immigrant called Milcho Indzhov before he was sent back to Russia, also in 2018. A year later, he was sentenced to 17 years in a penal colony. So far, 37 killers from Gagiev's groups have been sentenced to long prison terms. Seven are still being sought and seven others have been killed in gang conflicts.

Will Stewart