Tariel Guramovich Oniani (also known as Mulukhov).
While serving his sentence in the harsh Soviet prison system, his adherence to the strict criminal code earned him the ultimate underworld honor: coronation as a "Vor v Zakone" (Thief-in-Law).
Born in 1952 in the mining town of Tkibuli, Georgia, Tariel Guramovich Oniani was thrust into a harsh environment early in life. After his father tragically perished in a mining accident, a young Oniani turned to the streets.
Born on June 2, 1952, in the mining town of Tkibuli, Georgia, Oniani's path to the criminal world began early following the death of his father in a mining accident. tariel oniani prime crime top
Russian OMON commandos raided a private medical clinic in Moscow where Oniani was recovering from heart surgery. They found not just him, but six other senior thieves in law holding a secret skhodka (meeting). It was the largest roundup of the prime crime top since the fall of the USSR.
Upon his release from Russian prison on April 9, 2019, he was immediately re-arrested based on an international warrant. In October 2019, he was extradited to Spain to face the charges stemming from the 2005 Operation Avispa. Current Status (April 2026)
For a man who lived in the shadows, the final years of Tariel Oniani, the powerful thief-in-law known as Taro, remain largely an enigma. After being the subject of intense international manhunts and high-profile trials, he seemed to slip back into the dark world he had dominated for decades. Tariel Guramovich Oniani (also known as Mulukhov)
The core of the dispute was control over lucrative assets, including the multi-billion-dollar construction contracts for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. The conflict quickly turned bloody:
Spanish authorities, working in tandem with Russian intelligence, had been watching Oniani closely. In June 2005, Spanish police launched "Operation Java." In a spectacular dawn raid, they stormed his villa, arresting Oniani and several associates. The raid uncovered a cache of weapons, forged passports, and documents linking him to global money laundering schemes.
Law Enforcement Response and Challenges Efforts to counter figures like Oniani face several interlocking challenges: After his father tragically perished in a mining
For decades, his movements, alliances, and violent feuds have dominated , the definitive, authoritative Russian database tracking the hierarchy and biographies of the global post-Soviet criminal elite. To analyze Tariel Oniani through the lens of Prime Crime’s top rankings is to explore the history of modern Eurasian organized crime itself—spanning from the collapsing mining towns of the Soviet Union to the elite corporate enclaves of Western Europe and the bloody street wars of Moscow.
Oniani's return to Russia sparked a massive power struggle with (known as "Ded Khasan" ), then the most powerful figure in the Russian underworld.