04/25/2001 | Broker

Financial Times

Russian company director arrested in arms probe
By Jimmy Burns in London
Published: April 20 2001 19:31GMT | Last Updated: April 20 2001 23:42GMT



The Russian director of a UK registered company has been arrested by Italian police investigating an international arms smuggling ring.

British police sources said on Friday that Alexander Zhukov was one of six people arrested over the past week following a police investigation supported by the UK's National Criminal Intelligence Service.

Italian police have been following an arms smuggling operation dating back to the mid 1990s which involved the shipment, via Turkey, Egypt, and Italy, of thousands of AK47 Kalashnikov rifles, hand-held missiles, and ammunition from the Ukraine to the Balkans.

Mr Zhukov's Swiss-based trading company, Sintez Holding, has representative offices registered in the City of London under the name Sintez UK. He is also registered as the owner of a penthouse flat in upmarket Kensington, west London.

According to Italian police, Mr Zhukov was arrested at Olbia airport on his way to his holiday home in Sardinia. A former KGB agent, Anatoj Fedorenko, was among the others arrested under suspicion of having links with Russian mafia groups.

Italian investigators are thought to have discovered that work permits granted to Sintez Holdings were being used by arms traffickers as cover to ease travel through European border controls.

British police denied Italian TV reports that Mr Zhukov had recently been granted British citizenship, although they did identify him as "residing in the UK". The British Home Office, the government department responsible for foreigners resident in the UK, declined to comment on Friday.

The London-headquartered National Criminal Intelligence Service, is a police-led department that helps disseminate information from law enforcement agencies, and also helps co-ordinate international operations.

It is focused strongly on collating information on organised crime and has circulated a number of intelligence reports on Russian citizens who have bought properties and established business operations in the UK since the end of the cold war.

Investigations into the arms ring are understood to be continuing into some other suspects still at large.