The Chertanovsky District Court of Moscow sentenced four members of an ethnic criminal group engaged in the illegal legalization of migrants in the Moscow region, the FSB in Moscow and the region reported.
The court found that Russian citizens Mammadov, Mustafayev, Radjabov and Radjabli, natives of Azerbaijan, made fake migration documents granting foreigners the right to permanent residence in the country within three months from the moment of departure.
"During the illegal activity, members of an organized criminal group illegally legalized more than 1,000 foreign citizens and extracted criminal income in the amount of at least two million rubles," the department said.
The money that the band members managed to earn by criminal means was sent to relatives in Azerbaijan. During the searches, investigators found equipment for forgery of documents, databases of "clients", migration cards, fake seals and passports of citizens of Central Asian countries.
The court sentenced Mammadov to five years in a penal colony, Radzhabov and Radzhabli to four years, Mustafayev to two years. The defendants will serve their sentences in a general regime colony.