North Ossetia: two men suspected of kidnappings detained

In North Ossetia, policemen have detained two local residents who are suspected of kidnappings for ransom, the Republic's Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) reports.

In particular, a 56-year-old resident of the village of Tarskoe was detained. In 2006, he was put on the federal wanted list on suspicion of committing a number of serious and very serious crimes in an organized criminal grouping.

"During seven years, policemen were searching for the man, getting information about his whereabouts," states the MIA's press release that was received today by the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

According to the police's statement, they received information that, presumably, the wanted man with forged documents lived with his family in Saint Petersburg. As a result, the police managed to detain the suspect armed with a pistol in the village of Oktyabrskoe, where he visited his sister in her house.

According to the MIA's information, two days later, one more member of the organized criminal grouping a 40-year-old resident of the village of Tarskoe was detained.

"The detainees have already pleaded guilty in the fact that in November 2006, with the use of physical violence, they kidnapped a 20-year-old son of a businessman from Vladikavkaz for ransom, and in 2007, they kidnapped a businessman from Moscow, born in 1952, whose body was exhumed on May 16 on the southern outskirts of the village of Tarskoe," the MIA's report notes.

According to the detainees' story, they demanded two million US dollars for the release of the businessman from his brothers, the MIA reports.