MOSCOW. June 3 (Interfax) - Russia's top criminal investigation agency confirmed on Saturday that the mayor of Makhachkala, capital of the Dagestan republic in Russia's North Caucasus, had been arrested and said the official was suspected of organizing the murder of a criminal investigator.
Investigative Committee spokesman Vladimir Markin told Interfax that the mayor, Said Amirov, was accused of organizing the murder in December 2011 of Arsen Gadzhibekov, acting head of the Committee's branch for one of the districts in Makhachkala.
Markin said Amirov had been already sent to Moscow, and that more than 10 suspected accomplices in the crime had been detained as well.
The spokesman said proceedings against the mayor were launched on Friday.
The arrests were "made possible by competent and professional actions on the part of investigators and operatives from the FSB [Federal Security Service]," Markin said.
The suspects were being screened for involvement in other high-profile crimes, the spokesman said.
Earlier, a Dagestani law enforcement source told Interfax that Amirov had been detained on suspicion of complicity in a series of grave crimes, and that detectives were currently searching his office and home.
The source also said Amirov's deputy and nephew Yusup Dzhaparov had been detained in Kaspiysk, Dagestan, on Friday. "Dzhaparov is suspected of membership in an organized crime group that has drug trafficking and murders on its record, including murders of law enforcement officers," the source said.