The suspects were among three people who have been detained on suspicion of murdering a businessman and his driver on the streets of Moscow in November 2008, as well as attacking a man who later died in the Russian capital on May 2012.
Two of the men previously served in the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) elite Alpha unit—a dedicated counter terrorism task force—an unnamed law official told the state-run news agency RIA Novosti. The pair are alleged to have committed the crimes after they left the service.
According to Russia’s Investigative Committee, one of the suspects is accused of recruiting the other two in order to commit the murders.
The suspects are accused of murdering the businessman and his driver on November 28, 2008, on Moscow’s Donskaya Street.
The men are also accused of killing a third man after hearing “information about the existence of a large sum of money” held by a Moscow resident and assualting him on May 29, 2012. The victim later died from his injuries.
The men were arrested on suspicion of the murder of two or more persons committed by an organized group, out of mercenary motives, with the aim of concealing another crime.
“As part of the criminal investigation, the investigators conducted more than 15 searches at the place of residence of the accused in Moscow and two other constituent entities of the Russian Federation, during which a large number of military firearms and explosives were found and seized, the Investigative Committee added in a statement.
During police questioning, one of the men allegedly admitted to the crimes and incriminated the other suspects.
According to Interfax, the men—identified only by their last names Chukayev, Chukanov and Voskresensky—have been placed in pre-trial detention until their next court appearance on February 25.
The Federal Security Service has been contacted for comment.
Earlier this month, a man killed two people when opening fire inside the FSB headquarters in Moscow.
The suspect, 39-year-old Yevgeny Manyurov, killed two FSB employees and wounded five other people during the attack on Thursday, December 19.
Manyurov, a former security guard, was eventually shot dead by authorities. Investigators have been unable to determine a motive for the attack.
“He had a homely look about him, I never saw him hanging out with friends or drinking,” Natalya Fedorovna, who lives in the same apartment block in the town of Podolsk just outside Moscow as the suspect, told Reuters.
Another neighbor, Vladimir Poruntsev, added: “He wasn’t very talkative, he was a little closed as a person.”
