The federal Prosecutor General's office carries more modest figures on its official web site-four arrests, and only one suspect cop.
Be that as it may, the raid is over, and will be eventually summed up for the public.
The controversial precinct has a posh address-Sadovo-Chernogryazskaya Street, part of Garden Ring, a circular chain of avenues round the city's heart.
As a police informant said to Novosti, several officers are suspected of complicity in stolen car sales. Cars on the "wanted" list were sneaked from many European countries to Moscow, where the bad cops gave them new certificates and number plates to go off in aboveboard deals.
"Turncoat cops," as Russian newsmen term them, have been making front-page news in the media for several months now. Graft burgeoned in the Russian police in the 1990s. Exasperated authorities are determined to act tough on it-better late than never. Again and again, the television offers footages of police-backed gangs tracked down.
Today's Moscow traffic cop scandal has made public an affair home security men started months ago as criminal proceedings were launched against several police officers.
Compassionate hearts excuse graft by miserly salaries on which policemen cannot keep up their families. Others accuse dishonest police bosses, who were deliberately encouraging their subordinates' dirty jobs in the previous decade to fish in troubled waters.
Every Russian knows about traffic cops fining drivers in highways and city crossroads, deservedly or not, as the case may be, without filling in slips to pocket the fines. But then, their loot of three, five or ten dollars is nothing compared to the huge sums their bosses make on car registration. The Sadovo-Chernogryazskaya precinct alone laundered several hundred stolen cars, at $10,000 apiece-or far more-within the preceding eighteen months alone, say the media.
The home security board raided another Moscow traffic police precinct, on the Dmitrov Highway, last night. The operation also involved Pushkino and Reutovo, small towns near Moscow. The raids resumed this morning.
Public enthusiasm erupted with the sensation. Crime-involved cops have long been Russia's headache. Now, the people-in-the-street hope justice will triumph over arbitrary action and lawlessness.
Federal authorities are firmly promising to the population to restore law and order. Boris Gryzlov, Speaker of the State Duma, parliament's lower house, and recent Interior Minister, made a public address to praise action against "turncoats". It has been on for a year or so. Yesterday's raid came as its mere part, he said. The Duma leader confirmed media information about its background. The operation was launched thanks to detection on a big gang that had been legalising stolen cars-mainly smuggled from other countries, he said. "In fact, it was a big guild that was doing the dirty business," Boris Gryzlov said to newsmen.
"Crime is infesting our ranks. We must acknowledge it, and put reliable barriers on its way," says Rashid Nurgaliev, who overtook the Interior portfolio from Gryzlov a few months ago.
