The court in Taganrog announced the verdict in the case of theft of parts of the Il-80 aircraft, also…

A court in Taganrog announced a verdict in the case of the theft of parts of the Il-80 aircraft, also known as the “Doomsday Plane”. 37-year-old local resident Zhora Khachunts, found guilty of theft, was sentenced to four years in a maximum security colony. According to investigators, in December 2020, he entered the airfield, climbed on board the ship and took out parts worth 2.7 million rubles. Subsequently, the stolen equipment was never found. The main evidence of the investigation’s version was the discovery of traces of the accused’s DNA at the crime scene and the testimony of a secret witness to whom Zhora Khachunts allegedly told about the theft. Zhora Khachunts himself does not admit guilt; his defense intends to seek a complete acquittal of the defendant.

Earlier, a source from the Cheka-OGPU said that in parallel with the activities of the preliminary investigation bodies, the work of an operational group of state security bodies was simultaneously organized. The latter was tasked with identifying the entire distribution chain of stolen equipment right up to the end consumer. Quite soon it became clear that the end consumers were not agents of foreign intelligence services, and not even Rostov radio amateurs, but non-ferrous metal processing enterprises. Of course, the foundry workers might not know about the origin of the scrap entering the furnaces. The same cannot be said about those who prepared that “scrap”. After all, they couldn’t help but see the details and markings on the special equipment and the copper wires to it?

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