Federal authorities arrested 13 alleged members of rival Armenian crime rings for alleged attempted murder, kidnapping and an elaborate cargo theft enterprise.
But the sophisticated crime ring goes beyond attempted murder and reads like a full-on mafia thriller. The Russian mafia-affiliated syndicates are reportedly fighting for power and turf in California’s San Fernando Valley, with some alleged members posing as Amazon carriers to steal $83 million in cargo shipments.
The charges stem from five federal complaints alleging a series of crimes, including attempted murder, kidnapping, illegal firearm possession, bank and wire fraud, and cargo theft totaling more than $80 million, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and law enforcement officers in California and Florida made the arrests on Tuesday, also seizing 14 firearms, approximately $100,000 in cash and three armored vehicles, according an ICE news release.
Among the defendants charged are Ara Artuni, 41, of Porter Ranch, who is charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering, and a rival, Robert Amiryan, 46, of Hollywood, who is charged with kidnapping.
Vahan Harutyunyan, 50, of Hollywood, Florida, made his initial appearance Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was ordered detained.
Two of the remaining defendants, Levon Arakelyan, 45, of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Ivan Bojorquez, 33, of Gardena, California, are presently detained in state custody on unrelated matters.
A multi-agency, multi-state investigation led to the arrests of rival organized crime members operating in California and Florida. Dismantling transnational criminal organizations is at the core of Homeland Security Investigations’ mission, said Dwayne Angebrandt, ICE Homeland Security Investigations Los Angeles acting Deputy Special Agent in Charge.
“This transnational criminal organization operated with the structure and brutality of an international cartel, inflicting significant harm on public safety and causing substantial damage to legitimate commerce and supply chains,” Angebrandt said in a statement.
“Through close collaboration with our law enforcement partners, HSI is holding these perpetrators accountable and disrupting their criminal enterprise at every level.”
The suspects have ties to Armenian Organized Crime, a Russian mafia-affiliated transnational criminal organization, which has made Los Angeles County a center of U.S. operations, according to affidavits filed with the criminal complaints.
Artuni and Amiryan are two local leaders within the organization. They are also known as avtoritet, which means “authority” in Russian. Since 2022, they allegedly have been fighting for control in their territory. The turf war has resulted in multiple murder attempts and a kidnapping.
In 2023, Artuni allegedly ordered the attempted murder of Amiryan, authorities said. In retaliation, Amiryan allegedly conspired to kidnap and torture one of Artuni’s associates in June 2023.
Since at least 2021, Artuni and his criminal enterprise has allegedly committed bank fraud, wire fraud and “cargo theft,” targeting online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc., the criminal complaint alleges.
Investigators believe Artuni Enterprise members and associates signed on with Amazon as carriers and contracted for trucking routes. While in route, they diverted course and stole all or part of the goods they were supposed to deliver, the complaint alleges.
To date, the Artuni Enterprise allegedly stole more than $83 million worth of goods from Amazon, according to the complaint and estimates provided by Amazon.
In another elaborate theft ring, Artuni Enterprise also ran a “credit card bust-out” scheme. They allegedly charged various credit cards to a sham business, then emptied the business account before the credit card companies could go after them for the disputed funds.
United States Attorney Bill Essayli had a warning for transnational criminal organizations: “Our communities are not your playground to engage in violence and thuggery.”
The investigation included local police departments, including Los Angeles Police Department Major Crimes Division – Transnational Organized Crime Section and Burbank Police Department, and involved working hand-in-hand with federal, state and local law enforcement partners.
“Our commitment to public safety is strengthened through collaboration,” said Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell. “Together, we are sending a clear message: violence will not be tolerated in our communities.”
Burbank Police Chief Rafael Quintero said detectives from the Burbank Police Department spent hundreds of hours investigating these “heinous violent crimes” and thanked law enforcement partners and the United States Attorney’s Office for their work in “holding these individuals accountable for their actions.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting the case. If convicted of all charges, the defendants will face statutory maximum sentences ranging from 10 years in federal prison to life imprisonment.
