Spain issues arrest warrants for 12 Russian mafia suspects, including high-ranking officials

TOP-FLIGHT officials are said to be among the Russian mafia suspects sought by the Spanish justice system – part of a long investigation which may have contributed to the death of Alexander Litvinenko from Polonium-210 poisoning.

Arrest warrants are now out for 12 suspected organised crime gang members, though to be connected to a Russian mafia boss who absconded to his home country after being detained in Spain eight years ago.

'Godfather' Gennady Petrov was thought to be head of the Tambovskaya mafia, which was behind weapons and drug dealing, blackmail, forgery, money-laundering and hitmen.

Some of the 12 suspects are reputed to be linked to Russian president Vladimir Putin's circle.

Among them is deputy leader of the Russian Federal Anti-Narcotics Service (FSKN), Nikolái Aulov, who said the arrest warrants were just 'another' attempt to discredit the country and were 'purely political'.

Another accused party is the former deputy leader of Russia's answer to the FBI, the Investigative Committee (SK), Igor Sobolevsky, and MP Vladislav Reznik who was once head of the financial markets committee in Russian Congress, plus his wife Diana Gindin.

The latest arrest orders are linked to last year's swoop on 20 Russian mafiosos out of a list of 27 published by the prosecution service in Spain, and which included a number of those currently sought by the Spanish justice system.

Gennady Petrov was one of the 20, and the Spanish court found he and his mafia cell were in touch with leading government members, among them the ex-prime minister Viktor Zubkov and the one-time minister of defence, Anatoly Serdyukov.

Nine-and-a-half years ago, former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko had been helping Spain with these inquiries, as was revealed in the probe into his death by UK authorities.