Estonia

• Obtshak (“common treasury”): drugs, prostitution

The traditional OCG in Baltic states is Obtshack (“common treasury”), an umbrella organisation, with activities that go from drug trafficking to prostitution to traffic of stolen vehicles. Some of these groups’ activities reach Finland (LINK). The recognised boss, Nikolai Tarankov a former member of the Soviet KGB, was assassinated in 2016 at 63 years old after 25 years of recognised leadership and controversy into the inability of the local authorities to capture him.

Juri Vorobei was sentenced to 9.5 years imprisonment in 2017 by the Parnu court. Vorobei alleged that Tarankov had threatened to kill him so he thought he would anticipate him. It is difficult to understand developments in absence of a leader who had been ‘reigning’ for 25 years: “Organised crime in Estonia is used to working in a system, following specific rules”, commented the chief of the central crime police Krista Ass in an interview with Postimees on January 5 2017. “Now that the system has disappeared a certain confusion reigns”.

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