02.09 Moscow Police Hold Over 200 in New Immigrants Sweep
MOSCOW, September 2 (RIA Novosti) Russian police have arrested 229 suspected illegal immigrants during a raid on a market in Moscow, the Interior Ministry said Monday.
The raid, in the capitals southwest, took place on Friday, though the ministry announced it only Monday afternoon.
Police were checking a produce market on the citys Novoyasenevsky Prospekt when they found an additional second floor with rooms for foreigners to live in at a building near the subway station, the ministry said in a press release.
229 people were taken to the [police] stations for checks, the ministry said.
Police have conducted a series of sweeps and mass checks of markets and other locations with large concentrations of immigrant workers over the past month, after a policeman was injured by a mob while trying to detain a man suspected of rape at a Moscow market at the end of July.
