21 years in prison for crime boss Vladimir Moskalchuk, nicknamed Makena. Details of the murder for which he was convicted

Makena crime gang leader Vladimir Moskalchuk has been sentenced to 21 years in prison for ordering and organizing the 2008 murder of rival crime boss Andrei Dashik, nicknamed Lvovsky, according to the Prosecutor’s Office for Combating Organized Crime and Special Cases (PCCOCS).

“The murder took place in a closed regime colony with the involvement of members of a criminal group from the same colony as perpetrators. As a result of blows with hard objects to vital parts of the body, the victim [Andrey Dashik, nickname Lvovsky] died on the spot,” says the PCCOCS press release .

“Subsequently, the criminals transported the lifeless body to another floor of the correctional facility in order to hide traces of the criminal act. The motive for the crime was the desire to strengthen the position of the criminal organization headed by him [Vladimir Moskaluk] in relation to other criminal organizations, as well as to hide some information related to other similar crimes.”

For carrying out the murder, the quoted source continues, the accused promised the perpetrators privileges, as well as promotion in the hierarchy of the criminal group he led. The five perpetrators of the crime were sentenced to 13 years in prison. Prosecutors reopened this criminal case after receiving relevant information with the support of the National Prison Administration in the context of the ongoing criminal case against the Makena criminal organization.

At the moment, Vladimir Moskalchuk is also in custody on suspicion of creating and leading a criminal group, as well as blackmail and preparation of murder. Vladimir Moskalchuk has been in custody since January 2002, having been sentenced to 15 years in prison for grand theft. In 2012, Moskalchuk was sentenced to another 19 years in prison on charges of organizing a criminal group that extorted money by blackmailing prisoners and their relatives.

The prosecution was largely based on the statements of a later kidnapped man who took advantage of the Witness Protection Law and was kept in a cell alone until 2021, the year he was released, in the Chisinau police pre-trial detention center. In 2014, Moskalchuk and one of his close associates, Vitaly Gushan, aka Beard, again appeared in the dock on charges of blackmailing prisoners.

The case is pending in the Chisinau Court and is not moving forward, since several detainees who testified at the stage of the criminal investigation refuse to testify in court in the presence of Moscalciuc.