Accused of trafficking 10,000 pounds of stolen chocolate, 33 members of a New York City-based mob group were charged Wednesday with the crime, among other offenses.
The Shulaya Enterprise, which has links to crime organizations in Russia, Ukraine, and Georgia, is accused of committing a number of crimes including a murder-for-hire conspiracy, a robbery scheme, and stealing cargo shipments containing the chocolate, according to USA Today.
The group is run by 40-year-old Razhden Shulaya of Edgewater, N.J., who was among those arrested, USA Today reported. The majority of the suspects lived in Brooklyn, but some were arrested in Nevada and Florida. Seven members of the group are still at large, according to NBC 4.
The FBI’s Joint Eurasian Organized Crime Task Force arrested the group members early Wednesday. Some members could face decades in prison for charges such as extortion, narcotics trafficking, credit card fraud, and identity theft if maximum penalties are applied, NBC 4 reported.
“Thanks to the remarkable interagency partnership of FBI, CBO, and NYPD, we have charged and arrested 33 defendants allegedly involved in this criminal enterprise,” Acting Manhattan U.S. Attorney Joon H. Kim said in a statement, calling the array of charges against the crime group “dizzying,” USA Today reported.
Most of the organization’s members were born in the former Soviet Union and still have ties to Ukraine, Georgia, and the Russian Federation, NBC 4 said. The Shulaya Enterprise had operations in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida and Nevada, according to court papers.
Several Twitter users wondered where they could sign up to traffic chocolate.
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