Russian law enforcement agencies have stopped the activities of a criminal group involved in smuggling weapons from Thailand to Russia, which were used, among other things, to prepare a terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall concert hall near Moscow. According to the Mash Telegram channel, three suspects associated with the Batal-Khadzhi extremist organization, banned in the Russian Federation, have been detained. They turned out to be brothers Magomed and Salam Tumgoev, as well as their accomplice Bilal Torshkhoev. A criminal case has been opened against the defendants under the article on illegal import of weapons across the state border. 

The smuggling scheme, as law enforcement officers established, was carefully worked out. The criminals purchased Glock 19 pistols in Bangkok, which were popular among the group members due to their compactness and high proportion of plastic components, making them difficult to detect during scanning. The weapons were disassembled into parts, and the parts were hidden inside household items - frying pans and ovens. The parcels were then sent to Moscow via the international postal service. From the capital, the weapons were transported to Ingushetia by bus. Recently, in the village of Surkhakhi in the Nazran district of the republic, law enforcement officers discovered a cache of weapons, including four Glock pistols, one Makarov pistol and an assault rifle. According to the investigation, it was in this village that the caches with the weapons used to prepare the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall were located. 

According to sources, the smuggling channel had been operating since 2011, and during this time, over 600 units of firearms were illegally imported from Thailand and Turkey to Russia. The terrorist attack in Crocus, which took the lives of 145 people, was one of the tragic consequences of this network's activities. Let us recall that the attack took place on March 22, 2024, before a concert of the Piknik group, when armed terrorists broke into the building, opened fire on visitors and set the premises on fire, blocking the exits. 

As reported by the Izvestia agency, citing its own sources, the special services are continuing their investigation, which is checking the involvement of other Batal-Hadji members hiding abroad, in particular in Ukraine and Turkey, in the terrorist attack. According to the media, one of them was previously accused in absentia of smuggling weapons, which were used to kill the head of the Center for Combating Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ingushetia, Ibragim Eldzharkiev, and his brother in 2019. In total, 12 people have been brought to justice in the case of the terrorist attack in Crocus, and the organizers and accomplices, according to the FSB, are outside of Russia.