U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and law enforcement partners in California and Florida arrested 13 alleged members and associates of Armenian organised crime syndicates on May 20.
Those arrested are charged in five federal complaints with a series of crimes, including attempted murder, kidnapping, illegal firearm possession and thefts estimated to be in millions of dollars related to online retailer shipments.
Among the defendants charged are Ara Artuni, 41, of Porter Ranch, California, who is charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and a rival, Robert Amiryan, 46, of Hollywood, California, who is charged with kidnapping.
The defendants arrested in California are expected to make their initial appearances this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon in the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.
Vahan Harutyunyan, 50, of Hollywood, Florida, made his initial appearance in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and was ordered detained.
Two of the remaining defendants, Levon Arakelyan, 45, of Las Vegas, Nevada and Ivan Bojorquez, 33, of Gardena, California, are presently detained in state custody on unrelated matters.
Law enforcement seized approximately $100,000 in cash, three armoured vehicles, and 14 firearms during the operation.
According to affidavits filed with the criminal complaints, Armenian Organised Crime, a Russian mafia-affiliated transnational criminal organisation, has made Los Angeles County a centre of U.S. operations.
Since 2022, two local leaders within the organisation, also known as avtoritet, which in Russian means “authority,” allegedly have engaged in a power struggle for control in their territory, resulting in multiple murder attempts and a kidnapping.
Artuni, an avtoritet, is charged with ordering the attempted murder of Amiryan during the summer of 2023. In retaliation, Amiryan, also an avtoritet, allegedly conspired with members of his own criminal organisation to kidnap and torture one of Artuni’s associates in June 2023.
In addition to attempted murder, Artuni and his criminal enterprise have, since at least 2021, allegedly committed additional crimes, including bank fraud, wire fraud, and “cargo theft” targeting online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc.
Artuni Enterprise members and associates enrolled with Amazon as carriers, contracted for trucking routes, and then, while transporting the goods, diverged from the route and stole all or part of the shipment.
To date, the Artuni Enterprise has allegedly stolen goods from Amazon worth more than $83 million, according to estimates provided by Amazon.
The Artuni Enterprise also ran a “credit card bust-out” scheme in which they charged various credit cards to a sham business, then drained the business account before the credit card companies could collect the to-be disputed funds.
“Today’s arrests reflect that my office and our law enforcement partners are committed to keeping America safe by dismantling transnational criminal organisations,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “Let today’s enforcement action be a warning to criminals: Our communities are not your playground to engage in violence and thuggery.”
“Investigators from the Burbank Police Department spent hundreds of hours investigating these heinous, violent crimes,” said Burbank Police Chief Rafael Quintero. “The Burbank Police Department is grateful for the assistance from its law enforcement partners and the United States Attorney’s Office for their work in holding these individuals accountable for their actions.”
“Dismantling transnational criminal organisations is at the core of HSI’s mission,” continued Angebrandt. “Through close collaboration with our law enforcement partners, HSI is holding these perpetrators accountable and disrupting their criminal enterprise at every level.”
If convicted of all charges, the defendants will face statutory maximum sentences ranging from 10 years in federal prison to life imprisonment.
