What associations most often arise when mentioning the "dashing" 90s? First of all, people remember the rampant crime, racketeering, lawlessness and the formation of a huge number of criminal groups. And this is no coincidence, because it was in the 90s that a wave of ubiquitous creation of criminal gangs swept over Russia, the leaders of many of which were simple "people from the people."
Gangs
The following gangs are considered the most famous and cruel organized crime groups that arose in the 80-90s:
- The Solntsevo group, which kept in fear the merchants and ordinary residents of Moscow. Quite quickly, the influence of this criminal group spread to other cities and even to a number of foreign countries.
- The Orekhovskaya organized crime group is the main enemy of the Solntsevo group, which was in no way inferior in scale and influence to it.
- Volgovskaya gang that arose in the Samara region.
- The Tambov group, which oversees St. Petersburg and was actively involved in racketeering, extortion, and participation in bloody showdowns.
- The Slonovskaya gang is the most famous Ryazan gang, whose activities in a short period of time have spread far beyond the borders of the Ryazan region.
Slonovskaya gang
She is considered one of the most cruel and large groups that have ever existed in Russia. This gang appeared in Ryazan in 1991, and its founders were Nikolai Maximov, nicknamed Max and Vyacheslav Ermolov, nicknamed Elephant.
Max and Elephant were old friends and, in the midst of the lawlessness that was happening then in the country, decided not to miss the chance to make good money. By the way, Maksimov Nikolay at that time was the personal driver of the deputy prosecutor of Ryazan, and Yermolov Vyacheslav - a taxi driver.
The group under the leadership of the above personalities was originally “roofing” the thimble. However, soon the gang began to specialize in fraud in the sale and purchase of cars.
Quite quickly, the Elephant rallied around itself several small criminal gangs (each of which included about 100 people). Each so-called “subgroup” was engaged in a specific area of ​​criminal activity - someone engaged in racketeering, someone oversaw the gambling business or the car market. All these small groups were part of the Elephant Orchestra.
Nicknamed the Elephant
Ermolov Vyacheslav Evgenievich was born in 1962 in Ryazan. Not having received a higher education and any specialty, he was engaged in small part-time jobs, and later he began to "tax" on his own car. Constant financial instability led him to the idea of ​​creating a gang that would be able to "earn" good money through hard physical strength. At the same time, Ermolov himself cannot be called an athlete: he was always distinguished by high growth and impressive weight. For its completeness, he subsequently received the nickname Elephant.
Created by Ermolov and his friend Maximov in the late 80s, the group was originally called Presentovskaya (in honor of the cafe of the same name, where these citizens liked to spend time). However, after the murder of Maksimov, Ermolov Vyacheslav became the sole leader of the gang and renamed it in his honor to Slonovskaya.
Personal characteristics
"Elephant" has always been particularly cruel both in relation to competitors and in relations with their "wards." Inside the criminal group, he managed to build clear discipline and subordination. His orders and decisions were not discussed and were binding on all members of the organized criminal group. For the slightest offense, Ermolov could be severely punished, so his authority in the eyes of the members of the group was obvious.
Competitors characterized Elephant as a competent leader and a smart enough person. Many noted that when he achieved a certain goal, he thought through all possible situations and always had a clear plan of action. Ermolov Vyacheslav was distinguished by consistency in resolving issues and by any means achieved the task.
Elephant Criminal Activities
In addition to racketeering, since 1993 the Elephant Group began to actively engage in the creation of the so-called financial pyramids. So, only in the first year of such criminal activity, “Elephant” and his team managed to collect more than 17 billion rubles from residents of the Ryazan region.
Increasingly, Ermolov Vyacheslav began to give orders to eliminate, that is, the murder of his competitors. By the way, it was rare to negotiate peacefully with Elephant. Being a hot-tempered and greedy man, he did not like and did not want to share money with anyone. Therefore, the only "right", in his opinion, solution in such situations was the elimination of people who were objectionable to him.
The dominance of organized crime groups
They also appealed to representatives of the Elephant Group for contract killings (since there were a large number of professional snipers in the state of the organized crime group). Members of the gang did not “disdain” the rape of young residents of Ryazan. At the same time, they intimidated their victims in such a way that the latter did not contact law enforcement agencies.
The Elephant actively developed in its group the laundering of money obtained by criminal means, extortion, fraud (including with postal credit notices), the killing of not only competitors, but also people who did not want to be under the "roof" of the Elephant gang.
Gang War
The elephant group, under the strict guidance of Ermolov, strove for domination. Therefore, Vyacheslav Ermolov devoted a special role to the elimination of other criminal gangs that existed in Ryazan.
In the 90s, along with the Slonovskaya active and large-scale organized crime groups in Ryazan were the Ayrapetovskaya and Arkhipovskaya groups. With them, the Elephant waged a real war.
In the spring of 1993, at the next “arrow” (between the elephant and airpet), the latter brutally beat the elephant. He could not forgive. Ermolov and his gang staged a real hunt for the members of the Ayrapetovskaya gang, having launched several raids, as a result of which more than 10 members of this group were killed. However, the main goal of Ermolov was the murder of the leader of the organized crime group - Ayrapetov (who later still had to move to Moscow, from where he continued to direct the activities of his gang).
Ultimately, under the prolonged onslaught of the Slonovskaya gang, the group of authority of Ayrapetov lost its former power.
After that, the Elephant took up the organized crime group, whose authority was Alexander Arkhipov. In the winter of 1995, by order of Ermolov, this authority was killed. Arkhipovskaya gang ceased to exist.
It is worth saying that after two years the people of Ermolov nevertheless found the leader of the Ayrapetovskys in Moscow and punished him. So, in the territory of the Ryazan region, by the end of 1995 only the Elephant group remained. Ermolov himself began to single-handedly "rule" in the Ryazan underworld.
High-profile crimes
Vyacheslav Ermolov (Elephant) after eliminating all competitors became the central figure in the criminal world of Ryazan. It was his group that all the markets, factories, collective farms and firms of the city began to submit to without exception.
The elephant criminal group literally "bathed" in money. However, this did not seem to Yermolov. In early September 1996, he arranged for the abduction of businessman Khodzhiev with a view to a subsequent ransom. To Elephant's surprise, this crime was not brought to an end, since 6 members of his group who took part in the abduction of the businessman were detained by law enforcement officials.
During interrogations, they all admitted not only the abduction of Khodzhiev, but also the commission of more than 20 contract killings.
From that moment, Ryazan’s law enforcement agencies took seriously the Elephant group, and already in October of that year, almost all full-time killer gangs were arrested.
In 2000, the Ryazan Regional Court examined the high-profile case of the Elephant Group, as a result of which 25 gang members were sentenced to imprisonment. A total of 86 contract killings by members of this gang were proved.
Further fate
Immediately after the high-profile arrests, the leader of the organized crime group - Vyacheslav Ermolov (Elephant), whose biography testifies to egoism and vanity, did not save his "subordinates", but hastily left Ryazan, and later completely went abroad. By the way, to date, the elephant is on the federal wanted list. According to some reports, he lives in Europe, does not come to Russia.
Together with the authority of the Elephant, about 30 more active gang members were put on the federal wanted list .
The same representatives of the Elephant Group, who appeared in court in the 90s, received from 10 to 25 years in prison. Thus, a part of the Elephant Gang to this day continues to be in prison.
There are those who have already “unwound” their term. So, in 2011, the former full-time killer of a criminal gang, Andrei Savchenko, was released, who, however, managed to get into the field of view of law enforcement again.
One of the active members of the gang Fedya Lysy (aka Fedor Provotorov) was repeatedly prosecuted, but he escaped punishment. Since 2000 , he has been carrying out successful political activities in the administration of the Ryazan region.
That's all…
For 10 years, the Elephant group and its permanent leader Vyacheslav Ermolov, whose biography consists of continuous crimes, kept the whole of Ryazan at bay. Having destroyed its competitors, the Elephant became one of the most powerful authorities of that time, and his gang was considered one of the largest in Russia.
From an ordinary, uneducated taxi driver, Ermolov turned into the organizer of a huge number of contract killings and assassination attempts. He developed many fraudulent schemes, took part in bloody showdowns, extortion, kidnapping and other serious crimes.
So far, Vyacheslav Ermolov (Elephant), whose photo "flaunts" in criminal chronicles, has not suffered criminal liability for all those countless crimes that he managed to plan, organize and commit.