LOS ANGELES — A federal sting resulted in the arrest of 13 individuals connected to an Armenian organized crime network. They face serious charges such as attempted murder, kidnapping, illegal possession of firearms, bank and wire fraud, and online cargo theft amounting to over $80 million.
Using search warrants, investigators from the Department of Homeland Security, supported by local police forces, conducted raids at a residence in Los Angeles and other sites across Southern California and Florida early on Tuesday.
AIR7, in collaboration with ABC7 Eyewitness News in Los Angeles, provided aerial coverage of the operation at a house on Cabernet Court within the Sun Valley neighborhood, where SWAT units from the nearby Burbank and Azusa police departments secured the perimeter.
According to U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli’s office in Los Angeles, 13 members of an Armenian organized crime syndicate were arrested in the operation.
The U.S. Attorney’s office also said $83 million in merchandise was stolen from online retailer Amazon as part of a cargo theft ring run by members of the syndicate. Those members were taken into custody on Tuesday.
In a written statement, the acting deputy director of Homeland Security Investigations in Los Angeles said, “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.”
Law enforcement reportedly seized approximately $100,000 in cash, three armored vehicles, and 14 firearms during Tuesday’s operation.
Off camera, neighbors told Eyewitness News that the residents at the Sun Valley home moved in about five years ago. They said there’s been a lot of activity going in and out of the house on a regular basis.
They said the Homeland Security Investigators showed up at the location around 4 a.m. Tuesday — adding that after they crashed through a gate, they heard a loud thud coming from the house.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office and Homeland Security investigators say the men who were arrested Tuesday were all working on expanding and maintaining control of their criminal enterprise in the San Fernando Valley.
Essayli’s office said, according to affidavits filed with the criminal complaints, Armenian Organized Crime, a Russian mafia-affiliated transnational criminal organization, has made Los Angeles County a center of U.S. operations. Since 2022, two local leaders within the organization, also known as avtoritet, which in Russian means “authority,” allegedly have engaged in a power struggle for control in their territory, resulting in multiple murder attempts and a kidnapping.
Officials said they’re still looking for one more suspect.
Essayli’s office named the following people who are being charged in relation to the operation:
- Ara Artuni, 41, of Porter Ranch — charged with attempted murder in aid of racketeering
- Robert Amiryan, 46, of Hollywood — charged with kidnapping (Artuni’s rival)
- Vahan Harutyunyan, 50, of Hollywood, Florida — made his initial appearance Tuesday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and was ordered detained
- Levon Arakelyan, 45, of Las Vegas — currently detained in state custody on unrelated matters
- Ivan Bojorquez, 33, of Gardena — currently detained in state custody on unrelated matters
Artuni is accused of ordering the attempted murder of Amiryan in the summer of 2023. Amiryan allegedly conspired with members of his own criminal organization to kidnap and torture one of Artuni’s associates in June 2023.
Essayli’s office said Artuni and his criminal enterprise enrolled with Amazon as carriers, contracted for trucking routes, and then diverged from the route and stole the shipment while transporting the goods. They said Artuni and his associates also ran a “credit card bust-out” scheme where they charged various credit cards to a sham business, then drained the business account before the credit card companies could collect the to-be disputed funds.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says if convicted, the 13 people arrested face between 10 years and life in prison.
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