Thread by @SlatsHenry

1/#FILE_ONE (CASE# 001): DIMITRY STRESHINSKY, PART 3 – Today’s #FILE_ONE is third in a series of Twitter threads highlighting the history and associations of Russian gun manufacturer and arms dealer DIMITRY STRESHINSKY, ERIK PRINCE’s mysterious business partner in “PROJECT ZULU.”

2/ In our previous thread, DIMITRY STRESHINSKY, PART II, #FILE_ONE outlined the role STRESHINSKY played in a 1992-94 operation organized by KONSTANTIN DAFERMOS, a Russia linked Greek arms dealer, to ship weapons to belligerents in former Yugoslavia in violation of a UN embargo

3/ Previous thread:

https://twitter.com/SlatsHenry/status/1027410619673337857

4/ In PART 3, #FILE_ONE will outline STRESHINSKY’s arrest, indictment and trial by Italian authorities following the 1994 seizure on the Adriatic of the JADRAN EXPRESS, a cargo ship carrying Russian made weapons bound for Croatia which had been sourced by STRESHINSKY from Belarus

5/ According to 2003 testimony of ROMAN KUPCHINSKY, Senior Analyst, Radio Free Europe to the US Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, STRESHINSKY shipped arms to Croatia in 92-93 sourced from Ukraine, using faked end user certificates.
csce.gov/sites/helsinki…

6/ KUPCHINSKY: “Streshinsky had gotten the word that he was not welcome in Ukraine anymore so in early 1994 (he) went to Minsk ... where he signed a contract to buy arms from the Belarus firm Belorusexport ... he bought the arms ... using a fake Nigerian end user certificate.”

7/ “The weapons were shipped overland to the Ukrainian port of Oktyabersk where they were loaded onto a tramp steamer called the “Jadran Express” on February 27th. By this time the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) were following their every move.”

8/ “The ship then sailed stopping off at Izmir, Turkey, then Port Said and then headed back northeast to the Adriatic where it was seized (by NATO warships ... outside Venice on March 11, 1994. The Italian police knew that the “Jadran Express” was heading to Croatia ...”

9/“Six years later the Italian police, working with the Ukrainian SBU, the British National Criminal Intelligence Service and other national police forces, broke the case of the Jadran Express ... and arrested a number of arms traffickers in (Jan) 2000 for breaking that embargo.”

10/ RFE reported: “Streshinsky was apprehended by German police in the fall of 2000 and soon afterwards was turned over to Italian authorities on arms-smuggling charges."
rferl.org/a/1342354.html

11/ STRESHINSKY was tried by Italian authorities in Turin in early 2003, along with several others, including head of SINTEZ OIL (Odessa), ALEKSANDR ZHUKOV. According to prosecutors, the JADRAN EXPRESS was carrying 30k Kalashnikovs and other munitions.
en.crimerussia.com/oligarchs/russ…

12/ Also indicted w/STRESHINSKY were two Russian businessmen, LEONID LEBEDEV and MARK GARBER, founders of SINTEZ OUL, the parent company of the ZHUKOV-owned branch in Odessa, along w/ANDREY VAZHNIK and ANATOLY FEDORENKO, alleged ex-KGB officers and partners of STRESHINSKY.

13/ Italian state police had previously tied STRESHINSKY arms trading w/SINTEZ OIL (Moscow) controlled by ZHUKOV (Odessa), LEBEDEV and GARBER and its subsidiary, TRANSCARGO (see POLIZIA DI STATO, SERVIZIO CENTRALE OPERATIVO, MAFIA UCRAINA, 1998, p. 71)
occrp.org/images/stories… …

14/ According to a 2015 column by NIKOLAI HOLMOV published in ODESSATALK, top officials of SINTEZ OIL - the company STRESHINSKY was linked to by the Italian state police investigation - are closely associated w/both the Odessa Mafia and the KGB.
odessatalk.com/2015/11/electo…

15/ HOLMOV: “... Leonid Lebedev (associated with Russian organized crime as well as being a Russian politician) became the chairman of Sintez Group – a small Russian commodities concern that had a grubby and somewhat opaque little deal with ... Rosneft, Luk Oil etc.”

16/ “His business partners were/are Mark Garber and Alexander Zhukov. (Mr Zhukov is the father of Daria Zhukova – who is now the wife of Roman Abramovich).”

17/ “... amongst many subsidiaries of Sintez Group was/is Sintez Oil Ltd run by Mr Zhukov ... which has a ... nefarious footprint in the Odessa ports. The long-reigning Odessa mafia Don, Alexander Angert is also associated with Sintez Oil via a subsidiary called Transcargo.”

18/"(Odessa) Mayor Trukhanov also worked for Sintez ... Trukhanov’s electoral rival for mayor, Sasha Borovik, and in particular his KGB history and also the KGB history of his father Valeriy – yet it is also no secret that Valeriy Borovik was Head of Security at Sintez Oil ...”

19/ Furthermore, YEVGENY MARCHUK, a former prime minister of Ukraine and former head of the SBU, alleged by STRESHINSKY to be ring-leader of the conspiracy, was accused by Italian authorities of being involved in the illegal arms shipments to former Yugoslavia.

20/ KONSTANTIN DAFERMOS was also indicted and tried by the Italians. @100Reporters “Prosecutors in Turin described Konstantin Dafermos as the mastermind of the operation, in which phony documents showed the arms going to Africa instead of the Balkans.”
100r.org/2011/11/the-pr…

21/ However, KONSTANTIN DAFERMOS was acquitted by the Italian court, as were all of STRESHINSKY’s alleged co-conspirators, including SINTEZ OIL linked ALEKSANDR ZHUKOV, LEONID LEBEDEV and MARK GARBER..

22/ Nevertheless, DIMITRY STRESHINSKY was found guilty by the Italian court in Turin on arms smuggling charges and sentenced to prison for one year and eleven months (which he had already served in custody awaiting trial) as well as fined.

23/ SUMMARY: DIMITRY STRESHINKSY, ERIK PRINCE’s alleged business associate, is a convicted criminal whose illegal activities brought him into association w/Russia linked KONSTANTIN DAFERMOS, the alleged mastermind of a massive arms smuggling operation to former Yugoslavia.

24/ Furthermore, through his connection as a arms dealer w/SINTEZ OIL, STRESHINSKY was/is an associate of Russian oligarchs LEONID LEBEDEV and MARK GARBER, as well as ALEKSANDR ZHUKOV (father-in-law of ROMAN ABRAMOVICH)

25/ Finally, STRESHINSKY has also been linked through his illegal arms smuggling activities with alleged former officers of the KGB as well as organized crime elements associated w/the Odessa Mafia through SINTEZ OIL and it subsidiary TRANSCARGO.

END/ COMING NEXT: #FILE_ONE (CASE# 001): DIMITRY STRESHINSKY, PART 4 – An overview ARSENAL FIREARMS, the company that STRESHINSKY founded in 2010, and its Italian partners, with a close look at their connections to ERIK PRINCE through BLACKWATER AMMO.

@threadreaderapp thread roll pls