The Gang of Amazons (Russian: Банда «амазонок», romanized: Banda "amazonok") is a family of serial killers from Stavropol, Russia, who committed a series of murders and robberies over a span of six years.
Inessa Tarverdiyeva along with her husband Roman Podkopaev, 35, and two daughters Viktoria, 25, and Anastasiya, 13, began their murder spree in 2007, but some accounts detail offences as far back as 1998.
to be called such due to the predominance of women over men that composed the group, however, the name actually came about from journalists who covered the investigation of crimes committed by the family.
On 17 February 2008, in Aksai, bandits murdered Mikhail Zlydnev, head of the information security department of the State Drug Control Service, and his wife.
[5] On 17 July 2008, in the Aksai district on the federal highway, the gang members shot a car in which Rostovites Alexei Sazonov and Julia Vasilyeva were travelling.
[5] On 8 July 2009, the family overpowered and shot Lieutenant Colonel Dmitry Chudakov of Nizhny Novgorod, his wife and seven-year-old son with a Saiga .410 semi-automatic shotgun while they were parked on the shoulder of the road.
On 19 September 2012, in Novocherkassk, the family killed 26-year-old Vladimir Mandrik and 22-year-old Vasily Camforin, two employees of a private security company who responded to alarms going off at a local dental clinic.
[5] on 24 April 2013 in the Aksai district, the family murdered 39-year-old police lieutenant Andrei Yurin, who was going out for a late-night drive.
[7] On 8 September 2013, after shooting an unnamed couple, Podkopaev and Viktoria proceeded to rob the home of a former military officer in Aksai, Rostov Oblast.
Both Podkopaev and Viktoria escaped via scooter but were stopped shortly after at an ID[clarification needed] by patrol officer Ivan Shakhovoi.
Shortly after, Inessa and Anastasiya were captured by police at a campsite where they were guarding a large cache of weapons, including 20 firearms, silencers, grenades, and ammunition.
It is suspected that the couple aided the family in the commission of their crimes by providing them with inside information about police operations and officer movements.