Nine men detained in crackdown on alleged Georgian led Mafia

Spanish police arrested nine alleged members of a gang run by a Georgian national, in a major crackdown on organized Russian and Georgian criminal gangs.

Conducting the second phase of a large scale operation codenamed Operacion Avispa (Operation Hornet), to target  the Russian and Georgian Mafias operating in the country, the National Police press service reported earlier on Thursday that seven people had been arrested in Madrid and two in Malaga, including "a Russian lawyer, who arrived from Moscow for a meeting in the Soto del Real jail near Madrid with his client, Zakhar Kalashov."

Kalashov is believed to be a Georgian Mafia boss and a statement issued later on Thursday said that Kalashov's gang was involved in money laundering. The gang earned money from criminal activities in Russia, including an illegal gambling business in Moscow and  kidnapping and extortion, and invested the illegally-gained funds in legitimate businesses in Spain, buying real estate, restaurants, and other assets.

The statement said police have frozen 1 million euros and $90,000 held in the group's bank accounts. "Monetary transactions from Russia went to accounts of the companies Importaciones Golden Ring and Chopard, which are controlled by 'Oleg V'", police said.

Oleg V (pictured), whose second name has not been disclosed, is also accused of bribing a prison official to improve Kalashov's conditions, the statement said. A Spanish police source said Oleg V is most likely to be Ukrainian national Oleg Vorontsov, a former electoral campaign advisor to ex-president Boris Yeltsin, who led the crime ring after the arrest of Kalashov in Dubai last May and his extradition to Spain.

Other detainees include a Russian, two Georgians and four Spaniards. The Russian, mentioned as 'Alexander G' in a statement, is believed to be Alexander Gofstein, a lawyer for the bankrupt oil firm Yukos, who arrived from Moscow for a meeting in the Soto del Real jail near Madrid with his client Kalashov, and was arrested on suspicion of involvement in gang's cash trafficking.

The first phase of Operation Hornet yielded 31 arrests in Spain in June 2005, a police spokesman said. "The ongoing operation is a continuation of Operation Hornet, conducted in June 2005," he said. "A total of 31 people, mainly Georgians, have been arrested in Barcelona, Alicante and Malaga, including 22 Georgian crime bosses."