Russian Deputy Police Chief Arrested in Casino Bribery Probe

Investigators have arrested a Russian deputy police chief in the historical capital of Siberia as part of a probe into an illegal casino network and suspected bribery.

The Russian media outlet BFM reported that law enforcement officials investigating the case have named the officer as Diogin Lambryanov, the deputy head of the Tobolsk Inter-Municipal Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Investigators think Lambryanov accepted “a particularly large bribe” in exchange for allowing gambling businesses to operate in Tyumen Oblast. The Investigative Committee of Tyumen has charged Lambryanov and retained him in custody.

The committee explained that it had discovered Lambryanov’s alleged wrongdoings as part of a wider probe into underground casinos in the Tyumen Oblast.

Russian Deputy Police Chief Took Bribe Via Intermediary

Investigators believe Lambryanov accepted a bribe of over 150,000 rubles ($1,855) from illegal casino operators “via an intermediary.” He reportedly “promised to protect the organizers” of an illegal gambling network in return.

The network reportedly operated underground gambling dens in Tobolsk and the city of Tyumen, some 250km to the southwest.

The committee says it has arrested two other individuals in connection with the same case. Officers think this duo “rented premises in Tobolsk and Tyumen from May to November of this year.”

They used these venues as underground casinos, officers think, allowing bettors to gamble money using specially modified computers.

The committee has sent the suspected mastermind to a pretrial detention center. The second defendant has been placed under house arrest.

Officers Continue Casino Investigation

The Investigative Committee says its investigation into the matter is currently ongoing. A spokesperson said that bailiffs have seized a range of illegal casino equipment from at least two addresses.

The spokesperson concluded that the committee is currently still “identifying other members” of what it thinks is an organized criminal group.

Police crackdowns on illegal gambling dens are becoming increasingly frequent in Siberia. In October, officials in the city of Novosibirsk, the region’s biggest and most populous city, said they had discovered an illegal casino operating inside one of Novosibirsk’s biggest public hospitals.

Crackdowns are also gathering pace elsewhere in the country. The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) recently made 32 gambling-related arrests in the northwestern region of Vologda.

Officers said they had shut down a gang that had “created and operated a sprawling network of illegal gambling clubs” across the region.

The FSB thinks the gang’s casinos had operated unchecked in Vologda for over a dozen years.