Message no. 1

From:	"Fisher, Victor" <Victor-Fisher@******.COM>
Subject:	OT:News-Daylight gun battle tied to Tambovskaya mafia war
Date:	Tue, 15 Apr 1997 08:59:33 -0400

A burst of gunfire in broad daylight wounded an alleged Tambovskaya
mafia leader and killed one of his bodyguards.
Police said the wounded man was out walking his rottweiler dog past
87 Bolshoi Prospect (Vasilyevsky Ostrov) when a red BMW 520 with
Belarussina license plates drew up beside him and his four bodyguards.
All five dove for cover as the BMW's occupants opened fire with
Kalashnikovs, hitting the alleged mafioso in the left thigh and groin.
One of the bodyguards was hit nine times and died almost immediately.
The other three bodyguards, who were unhurt, fled the scene before
police arrived.Two of them were, according to sources, were members of
OMON, St. Petersburg's paramilitary police.
<snip>
The assassins remain at large, but police found the BMW within2
kilometers of the shooting. It had been abandoned in the yard of a
building on Vasilyevsky Ostrov's 23rd Line.
It contained two Kalashnikov AK-75 5.45mm assault rifles, one empty
magazine, and a second with one bullet left.
<snip>
A June report released by city police claimed the gang was
stockpiling lafge amounts of cash, automatic weapons, and hand grenades.
Local papers speculated that the attack was part of an internal
power struggle.




Kinda like Chicago back in the days of Eliot Ness.