The Greek police and forensic experts are studying the circumstances of the mysterious demise of 37-year old member of the Mafia Lavrenty Cholakidis, nicknamed Leva Grek. The deceased was connected with the powerful clan of Ded Hasan, who controls the criminal underworld in the former Soviet Union. Thanks to Cholakidis Ded Hasan extended his influence on Europe, and Greece turned into a kind of "resort for the Russian mafia bosses."
Lavrenty Cholakidis died on May 25 in his house in the prestigious Oreokastro region in the city of Thessaloniki. In the morning after breakfast, a thief in law suddenly lost consciousness and died before the arrival of doctors. By the conclusion of doctors, the death of crime boss was due to sudden cardiac arrest, the newspaper Kommersant reported. It was also reported earlier that Cholakidis could have had a thrombus teared.
Either way, the Greek Police began investigating the case of death of the criminal authority, because he had never complained about his health and had no chronic illnesses. However, the Greek Police do not rule out that Lavrenty Cholakidis could have been killed.
Cholakidis was an active supporter of the criminal clan by Aslan Usoyan, nicknamed Ded Hasan. And the death of Lev Greek is a serious blow to the clan of Usoyan. The victim not only represented the interests of Ded Hasan in the Southern Europe, but also played a key role in moving the gangsters across the continent.
Aslan Usoyan himself has long been an unwanted person, not only for the European Schengen countries, but also for other states. For example, recently he was denied entry even to the Ukraine, though after his deportation the Russian law enforcement authorities demonstrated an accentuated loyalty towards him. Other crime bosses could have difficulties traveling, but all those problems the late Lev Grek used to solve.
According to a senior officer of the Russian Interior Ministry which specializes in combating organized crime, in Greece Cholakidis owned a chain of gas stations and a bus company engaged in passenger transport in Europe. According to intelligence data provided by the officer, " criminal proceeds obtained by clan Aslan Usoyana from illegal gambling, drug trafficking, compensation for criminal protection of the business, selling stolen goods, and others (sources) were laundered through those companies”.
"Thanks to Lavrenty Cholakidis's skill to negotiate with police officials, he managed to turn Greece almost into a sanatorium for the supporters of his clan, who could stay on its territory a long time without being arrested. In addition, the control over the transport company "allowed the right people to get in the right places." Thus, according to the officer, namely Lavrenty Cholakidis provided transfer from France to Greece to a kingpin Shushanashvili Lasha (Lasha Rustavsky), the French police suspected him of involvement in the shooting Vladimir Janashia in Marseille. According to intelligence data, Mr. Shushanashvili is now hiding in Greece in a mansion owned by relatives of Lavrenty Cholakidis.
Recall that in recent years, relations between the two powerful groups of Russian-speaking criminal world has become severely strained: the clan of Tariel Oniani named Taro and clan of Aslan Usoyan nicknamed Ded Hasan. Taro had the strongest positions in Spain, but in 2005 after a large-scale police raid Oniani was forced to flee and get settled in Russia. Then he demanded "his share" in the Russian criminal empire, ruled by the clan of Ded Hasan.
The negotiations led to nothing, and starting from thr end of 2008, Russia began the systematic extermination of crime bosses, and the supporters of Ded Hasan have been most affected.
November 17, 2008, two unknown opened fire at the house number 22 building 3 on the Veernaya street in Moscow and fatally wounded 47-year Gela Tsertsvadze, a close associate to Oniani. And in 2009, two thieves in law, which were closely associated with Ded Hasan, were killed: in February in Moscow, Alek Minalyan, known as Alek Sochinsky was shot, and in May, unknown persons murdered Andrey Golubev (Skif) and his henchmen in the capital.
The biggest loss for the clan of Ded Hasan was the murder of the «father of the Russian mafia» Vyacheslav Ivankov named Jap. Mafioso was shot by a sniper shortly after the arrest of Taro. Doctors of elite hospitals had been struggling for the life of crime boss for several months, but failed to save him.
When Jap got severely injured they began to talk in the criminal world that after his death "rivers of blood" will flow because the clan of Ded Hasan will take revenge on enemies. There was even talked that a hit of 35 Georgian crime bosses had been "ordered".
And after the funeral of Jap the clans war has not only got worsened but also spread to Europe. At the "thieves' meeting held in Barcelona, Spain, Oniani and his supporters were sentenced to death. Since then, members of the criminal clan Taro are dying one after the other, though the killers have not gotten Taro himself yet (Oniani is contained in a special block in detention center "Matrosskaya Tishina"). Over the past few weeks in France, a thief in law Vladimir Janashia (Lado) was killed, while in Greece - a thief in law Malkhaz Kitiya (Makhonia) was killed.
