MOSCOW, May 30 (RAPSI) – Twelve senior police and road traffic safety officers have been arrested in Russia’s Republic of Kabardino-Balkaria on suspicion of corruption, the Investigative Committee’s press service reports.

Police are also going after one more suspect, the statement reads. 

According to investigators, from 2017 to 2018, officials of the Interior Ministry’s republican directorate conspired to receive at least 42 million rubles (about $650,000) as bribes for clearing transportation of alcohol-containing products within the region. The organized group was allegedly headed by a deputy chief of the Interior Ministry’s republican State Road Traffic Safety Inspection directorate.

Depending on the alleged role of each arrested officer, they are suspected of organizing and participating in a criminal group with the use of job position and receipt of grand bribes by an organized group, according to the Investigative Committee’s statement.