Following the formation of important and powerful organized crime groups among Russians, Chechens, Armenians and Georgians in Moscow, Azerbaijani criminal gangs quickly developed in the early 1980s.
While the most important activity of Azerbaijani gangs was drug trafficking (mostly heroin), they've quickly expanded their operations to other areas of organized crime such as arms trafficking, fraud, money laundering, car theft, extortion, illegal gambling, counterfeiting, prostitution and contract killing.
[4] On 3 August 2023, an ethnic Azerbaijani businessman was shot in the area of Lilo Mall market in Tbilisi.
[6] According to the prosecutor’s office, the murder was a contract killing and it occurred after the businessman rejected to pay money to the criminal authorities connected to Elmuraz Mamedov, a Gardabani-born Azerbaijani thief in law operating from Poland.
The criminal band is believed to be extensively engaged in extortion of vendors in the Lilo Mall market.