A resident of Pervouralsk, Maxim K. (name changed for security reasons), rented an apartment on a daily basis. On October 14, 24-year-old Vitaly Markov moved in. The young man promised to return the keys the next morning, but did not get in touch at the agreed time. As Maxim's wife, Kristina (name changed), told RT, her husband opened the door with his key - the tenant was not there.

According to his wife, Maxim found a bundle of drugs in one of the rooms. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the package contained almost half a kilogram of methadone.

"He left everything he found in the basement and left. I don't know why he did it, apparently he wanted to wait for this guy, the lodger. But he didn't," Kristina believes.

A couple of hours later, on the same day, Maksim and his wife began to receive threats. The attackers demanded compensation for the "damage" - 500 thousand rubles, as well as to spread "bookmarks" with drugs around the city. Otherwise, Maksim and his family members were threatened with reprisals.

"The next day, they broke a window in the apartment where I live with my children: they threw bricks wrapped in paper with handwritten threats: 'Death to you or pay back the debt,' something like that," the RT interlocutor recalls.

The persecution of the family did not end there: Maksim and his wife continued to receive threats. The attackers said that they had already "ordered" the massacre of Maksim, his wife and children in some Telegram chats.

Arson and a coffin with a pig's head

On October 25, attackers threw smoke bombs through the window of the apartment where Maksim's wife and children live, apparently hoping that a fire would start. Fortunately, there was no fire.

Maksim and his wife called the police and told the officers who arrived at the scene about what was happening and about the previously discovered prohibited substances. Police officers took the drugs found by Maksim for examination.

After this episode, Kristina left home with her children, fearing for their safety. During their absence, the attackers arranged another "surprise" for Maksim: a coffin with a severed pig's head was addressed to him. A photo of Maxim was attached to it. However, the "couriers" made a mistake with the house: the parcel was brought to a neighboring building.

"At that time, the gang that terrorized us already knew the names of my children, and they also began to threaten. I went to the police, filed a complaint, and went to the media. Two criminal cases were opened: on extortion and threat to life," Kristina recalls.

According to her, now the whole family is under state protection, they are guarded around the clock.

Transfer of half a million

After the story of the persecution of the family from Pervouralsk became public and law enforcement agencies took up it, the persons who had previously sent threats to Maxim and Kristina contacted the spouses again, assuring that they were allegedly no longer in danger.

In addition, unknown persons transferred 500 thousand rubles to Kristina's bank card, explaining that this was "compensation" for the damage caused to the family. At the same time, no one asked the woman to withdraw the statement from the police.

"They wrote to me in the messenger asking me to unblock the user who had previously sent threats so that he could contact me, apologize and compensate me for the damage. When the money arrived, I called the authorities and told them about it. I was told not to dispose of this money," Kristina said.

The Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the Sverdlovsk region said that they detained two suspects who intimidated a family from Pervouralsk.

"Both defendants detained by the police are residents of Yekaterinburg. Previously, they had already been prosecuted for property crimes. The investigative unit of the Pervouralsk Department of Internal Affairs initiated a criminal case on this outrageous fact under two articles of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation at once - extortion and threat to kill," Valery Gorelykh, head of the press service of the Sverdlovsk Region Police Headquarters, told RT.

According to the colonel, one of the criminal couriers wrote a confession on seven pages and repents of what he has done. A coffin to intimidate the victims was purchased in Yekaterinburg in one of the funeral parlors, and the head of a pig was bought on one of the popular trading platforms on the Internet. A criminal case under Part 228 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation was also initiated on the discovery of a large batch of drugs, Gorelykh said.

The Lodger and the Performers

RT managed to find out that Maxim's tenant Vitaly Markov, after whom the landlord allegedly found a narcotic substance in the apartment, was also detained by the police.

His lawyer, Artyom Sachkov, told RT that Markov was detained in order to find out whether he owned the drugs that Maxim handed over to law enforcement agencies.

"They tried to accuse him of someone's drugs, which were found in a rented apartment, but he denied everything. Nevertheless, a protocol was drawn up against him for petty hooliganism, for the fact that he began to use foul language at the exit from the department. Vitaly was kept under administrative arrest for 7 days, after which I took him from there. He went home safely and no one bothered him on this issue anymore," Artyom Sachkov said.

The lawyer added that Vitaly Markov had never been convicted before, and also noted the fact that the owner of the apartment did not immediately come to law enforcement agencies to hand over the narcotic drugs he found in the rented apartment.

"As far as I understood, it was only almost two weeks later (after the discovery of the drugs) that the landlord of the rented apartment reported this to the police. That is, the owner of the living space kept this drug with him for two weeks," Markov's lawyer emphasized.

In turn, Maksim's wife believes that the persons who organized the harassment of her family have not yet been found. According to her, the two residents of Yekaterinburg, detained for the story with the coffin, are only executors.

"We shouldn't catch them! These are twenty-year-old guys who just go for any job. These guys were given the task of keeping an eye on us. And this is the second time they have been arrested – the first time they were detained on the same day they brought the coffin to the house. And now, for some reason, they are being detained again," the woman is indignant.

According to RT, since the beginning of this year alone, the Pervouralsk court has received 23 criminal cases under Article 228.1 - "Illegal production, sale or shipment of narcotic drugs." Sentences have already been passed on five of them.

According to court documents, the defendants are "pawnbrokers" who carry out orders from drug shop owners, who usually appear in criminal cases as "unidentified persons." The latter are most often impossible to find, since drug dealers use anonymous messengers for their work.