The study of an organized criminal group was launched back in 2013, when the Security Service of the company initiated an unscheduled in-line inspection on oil product trunk pipelines (OPTP) in the Ulyanovsk Region on the basis of the results of the operational data obtained from law-enforcement agencies. During the inspection, revealed preparations for unauthorized tappings in the OPTP and prepared offshoots from the tappings have been detected. At the same time, residue of oil products were discovered in the underground fuel tanks at one of the gas stations that are close to the OPTP; the performed comparative analysis of this residue showed its similarity to the oil products that are pumped via the OPTP.

Police officers and the personnel of the Security Service of the company noted a deep sealing-off of the theft scheme and a high level of technical equipment of the criminals.

In late 2013, the Security Service Department of Transneft, JSC received additional information that in Nizhny-Novgorod, Saratov, and Samara regions, an unidentified group of people from the Ulyanovsk Region sells oil that was stolen from the oil pipelines of the company.

Together with the Ulyanovsk Regional Department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Security Service of Transneft, JSC organized activities aimed at identifying the criminal schemes of theft of oil and oil products from trunk pipelines as well as the methods of selling such products and locations of processing of the oil stolen from the company.

In a joint operation, it was discovered that a formed ethnic criminal community, which specialized in stealing oil and oil products from trunk pipelines and which had corrupt ties in a number of territorial divisions of law enforcement agencies, had been active in Ulyanovsk, Penza, Saratov, and Samara regions.

Either no criminal investigations had been launched in respect of the facts of detection of unauthorized tappings or the launched investigations had been suspended for failure to identify the culprits.

The extensive measures of enhancing the security of OTPL and OPTPL in the above regions which were accepted by Transneft, JSC caused a sharp response from the criminal groups. There were repeated threats against employees of subsidiaries of the company up to the physical effects in relation to employees of the security divisions of subsidiaries of the company.

Representatives of the criminal community were extremely aggressive and were almost sure of their impunity.

In this regard, Transneft, JSC filed a request with the Minister of Interior of the Russian Federation V.A. Kolokoltsev for the law-enforcement agencies to take decisive action in order to protect the interests of the company and to ensure the safety of its employees.

After this request to the Ministry of Interior, a joint investigative team with the assistance of the Regional Offices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in Ulyanovsk and Penza regions, the Main Department of the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation in Samara Region, as well as employees of the Ulyanovsk Regional Department of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation.

In the course of its operation, the interdepartmental investigative team with the active assistance of the Security Service department of Transneft, JSC revealed detected preparation of the said organized crime group for wide-scale theft of oil and oil products from OTPL and OPTPL of the company.

Thus, 5 facilities were detected in different areas of the Middle Volga region; these facilities included filling stations, which comprised a significant amount of hidden storage tanks for oil and oil products (including buried railroad tanks), equipment for the preparation of unauthorized tappings, workpieces of unauthorized tappings for the pipelines as well as already manufactured and operated unauthorized tappings with kilometers of offshoots to the places of storage and subsequent loading of oil onto road transport.

The detected facilities functioned with gross violations of fire and environmental safety; no technical documentation for construction of gas stations was available; tanks were uncalibrated; and the submitted documents for the liquids in the tanks were forged. A preliminary study confirmed the similarity of the oil found in a number of containers to the oil transported via the Druzhba OTPL.

In the course of further constructive interaction between the representatives of the Security Service of the company and the Main Department of Economic Security and counteracting corruption of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, a special operation to curb the activities of a large ethnic community whose members are suspected in the theft of oil and oil products from OTPL and OPTPL of the company in a number of regions of the Middle Volga was conducted in January 2015. The leader of the group and six of his accomplices were arrested; one of the suspects managed to escape. Currently he is put on the wanted list.

The detainees were initially charged under Part 3 of Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (Theft from a trunk pipeline). During subsequent investigative measures and activities, materials were collected that allowed the investigation group of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Interior of the Russian Federation in Ulyanovsk Region to launch a criminal investigation under Article 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation «Organization of a criminal group and participation therein».

Currently, all the detainees who were involved in the case are in custody. Measures directed at establishing the exact amount of stolen oil and oil products as well as identifying the full chain of activities of the criminal community from the perpetrators to the paymasters and the persons involved in implementation and processing of stolen oil and oil products continue.

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