After being charged with several crimes, he moved on to Spain,[2] where he owned stock in an airline and where he ran a construction business employing illegal Georgian immigrants until 2005 when Spanish police conducted a large scale operation against his organization.

Oniani was charged with money laundering, human trafficking of illegal immigrants, and organizing a criminal gang, but managed to avoid the sting.

Around 2007, members of Usoyan's gang started turning up dead, including Armenian national Alek Minalyan, who was allegedly in charge of extorting construction firms working on the 2014 Winter Olympics.

[4] In 2008, in response to the growing violence, a meeting was called on Oniani's private yacht in an attempt to make peace between the two factions.

However, Russian authorities were notified of the meeting and used the opportunity to conduct a well-publicised raid and arrest dozens of gangsters.

The yacht meeting did not break up the violence, and the mobsters turned to noted vor Vyacheslav Ivankov to act as a mediator.