The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Stavropol Territory was fired after the arrest of the local head of the traffic police in the case of accepting a large bribe

The head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia Vladimir Kolokoltsev dismissed the head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Stavropol Territory, Major General Sergei Shchetkin, transfers TASS.

The decision to dismiss Shchetkin was made immediately after reports of the arrest of the head of the regional traffic police department Alexei Safonov.

According to the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Irina Volk, Kolokoltsev took such a step after the operation carried out in the Stavropol Territory by employees of the Internal Security Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the “M” Directorate of the FSB.

Today the head of the traffic police department Alexei Safonov and dozens of his subordinates were detained in the case of accepting a large bribe (part 6 of article 290 of the Criminal Code) for a total amount of more than 19 million rubles. According to the investigation, under the leadership of Safonov, the group members sold passes to truckers, which allowed them to work in the region “with violations of administrative law.”

According to the deputy Alexander Khinshtein, in the morning almost the entire top of the UGIBDD of the Stavropol Territory was detained – more than 35 employees.

Khinshtein also added that the detainees “are charged with organizing a criminal community, taking bribes, abuse, exceeding, etc.”

In addition, Khinshtein conducted a “tour of the palace of the head of the Stavropol State Traffic Safety Inspectorate” by publishing a photo from the house of Alexei Safonov. The photographs show that Safonov lived in a two-story cottage, surrounded by a high fence with gilded gates. Inside the house – furniture and appliances with gold trim, in particular, a gold toilet, sink and mirror.

In addition to Safonov, the security forces detained the ex-head of the Stavropol traffic police department Alexander Arzhanukhin, as well as inspector Vitaly Melchikov.