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Eduard Nektalov, a renowned figure in New York City’s Diamond District, was tragically shot and killed on May 20, 2004, around 7 p.m. as he departed his store on W. 47th St. in Manhattan.
“The sun was still up, and the streets were crowded. Suddenly, I heard a series of booms,” recalled Brad Hamilton, who was then an investigative journalist for the New York Post. “I was convinced they were gunshots.”
“I noticed a man casually walking with a huge gun tucked in the front of his pants,” Hamilton recounted in “The Don of the Diamond District” episode of New York Homicide, airing Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen. “I thought, ‘That guy just shot someone. I need to follow him.’” Unfortunately, Hamilton lost sight of the man amidst the bustling early-evening crowd.
Police found that Nektalov had been shot once in the head and twice in the back. “The victim had a very expensive watch and his identification, his wallet, $1,350, so robbery was ruled out almost immediately,” said Brian MacLeod, a now-retired New York City Police Department homicide detective.
Nektalov also had a wallet that belonged to his cousin, Alik Pinkhasov, on him. Investigators wondered why as they collected shell casings from the sidewalk and witness statements.
Witnesses told police that the gunman was a thin Hispanic man with a mustache. “He just walked gingerly off,” MacLeod said. “This was a blatant execution.”
Who was Eduard Nektalov?
Detectives learned that the 46-year-old murder victim was a well-known and beloved figure in a tight-knit Bukharian Jewish enclave that was concentrated in and around the Forest Hills and Rego Park areas of Queens, according to Igor Pinkhasov, then an inspector with the NYPD’s Patrol Borough Brooklyn South.
Nektalov came to New York City in the late 1980s when he was 16 with his father, Roman, and his brother. “His father, through family connections, was able to open a stall in the Diamond District,” said New York journalist and author Julie Satow. “Eventually that became Roman & Sons.”
Investigators initially believed that the execution-style manner of Nektalov’s death could be related to the family’s business. But the victim’s inner circle had no leads to share.
Detectives focused on the evidence in hand. Three bullets recovered from Nektalov’s body were sent for ballistics analysis. In the Diamond District — a hub for luxury jewelry on W. 47th St. between Fifth and Sixth Aves. — security-camera footage recorded images of the shooter. Detectives tried to identify him.
The FBI’s Operation Meltdown emerges
As investigators worked the homicide case, the FBI shed light on the Nektalov family history.
A year before the murder, Nektalov and Roman were indicted in a money-laundering scheme involving the Colombian drug trade.
Operation Meltdown, as the case was called, involved 11 Diamond District dealers, according to New York Homicide. The trial was two months away when Nektalov was brutally slain. Detectives theorized that Nektalov’s killing could be connected to the FBI’s Operation Meltdown.
“If you’re under indictment, people are always worried you’re going to flip,” said Jordan Estes, a former prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Seven of the 11 Diamond District dealers indicted for Operation Meltdown pled guilty and cut a deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The Nektalovs were not among them.
In July 2004, Roman was convicted on one money-laundering count. “The NYPD began to sour on the idea that it was the Colombians who killed Eduard,” MacLeod said.
Eduard Nektalov’s shooter identified
Ten months after Nektalov’s murder, a seemingly unrelated incident gave NYPD detectives a big break. A gun used in a shooting in the Bronx was found to be the same firearm used in the Nektalov murder.
The Bronx gunman was 36-year-old Carlos Fortier. Detectives were stumped when they tried to find the link between Fortier and Nektalov. Homicide detectives confronted Fortier about Nektalov’s murder at Rikers Island, where he was being held for the Bronx incident.
“He said, ‘Charge me with murder. I’ll be dead in three months anyway … I got AIDS,’” said MacLeod.
After witnesses identified Fortier as the gunman in Nektalov’s case, he was arrested. The suspect revealed no information. On April 8, 2005, Fortier pleaded not guilty to the murder charge. Within months, as he’d predicted, Fortier died.
Eduard Nektalov cold case revived
For 10 years, the Nektalov case stalled. In 2014, Roni Amrussi faced charges in a FedEx truck heist. “He was facing a lot of jail time,” said Estes. “That’s why he started talking to get a lighter sentence.”
Amrussi told the FBI about an incident that occurred three years before Nektalov’s murder, involving two men who were also in jail for the FedEx truck robbery — Lixander Morales and Hector Rivera.
The incident involved jewelry stolen from Roman & Sons that Amrussi had tried to sell to the Nektalovs. A dispute erupted. Amrussi enlisted the help of Rivera, who was his “godfather, essentially,” said Estes.
“Hector Rivera was the don of the Diamond District,” said Hamilton. “He was in charge. He was like this kingpin who, for years, secretly ran this street.”
Rivera had warned the Nektalovs to steer clear of Amrussi, but they ignored him. “They beat him up in humiliating fashion,” Hamilton said.
The fallout from the beatdown was significant. “Reputation on 47th Street is enormous,” said Det. Joseph Metsopulos of the NYPD’s Major Case Squad. Amrussi and Rivera suffered disgrace as a result of the Nektalov assault. Rivera vowed to get even.
After Nektalov was indicted, Rivera saw an opportunity to exact deadly revenge, according to Amrussi’s confession. Rivera figured that others involved in the money-laundering scheme would fall suspect, said Estes.
This revelation corroborated a lead a confidential informant called Ivan had given to Sgt. Eddie Perez of the NYPD’s Crime Scene Unit in 2004.
The source had claimed that Rivera was the ringleader and his right-hand man, Morales, coordinated the hit on Nektalov. “There just wasn’t enough probable cause to go ahead and arrest these individuals,” said Perez.
In 2014, investigators spoke again with the informant who was behind bars. “Ivan knew that Carlos Fortier was the one who actually did most of the work, who pulled the trigger,” said Estes. “He’d only gotten $10,000 for it … Lixander Morales got $20,000.”
Faced with murder charges for coordinating the Nektalov execution, Morales pleaded guilty in exchange for leniency and flipped on Rivera. Morales told investigators that weeks of planning went into killing Nektalov, according to New York Homicide.
Hector Rivera arrested and tried for murder-for-hire
On October 22, 2015, Rivera, who was behind bars for the FedEx heist, was charged with the murder-for-hire of Nektalov. Phone records showing calls between Fortier and Rivera before and on the day of the slaying bolstered the case.
At Rivera’s trial, the defense team argued that witnesses for the prosecution were suspect because their cooperation got them leniency in charges against them.
But on November 20, 2017, Rivera was convicted of murder-for-hire. He was sentenced to life in prison, plus 25 years.
The Nektalov family still works in the Diamond District.
To learn more about the case, watch “The Don of the Diamond District” episode of New York Homicide. The show airs new episodes on Saturdays at 9/8c p.m. on Oxygen.
