Aharon Galstyan
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1970 (age 55–56)
Robbery x26
Aharon Galstyan | |
|---|---|
| Born | Aharon Garushovich Galstyan 1970 (age 55–56) |
| Other names | "The Taxi Driver Poisoner" |
| Convictions | Murder x7 Robbery x26 |
| Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment |
| Details | |
| Victims | 7 |
Span of crimes | 2005–2008 |
| Country | Russia |
| State | St. Petersburg |
Date apprehended | 2008 |
Aharon Garushovich Galstyan (Russian: Агарон Гарушович Галстян; born 1970), known as The Taxi Driver Poisoner (Russian: Таксист-отравитель), is an Armenian-born Russian serial killer and thief. Operating in St. Petersburg, he would drug his passengers with Azaleptin (sleeping medicine containing clonazepam) and rob them of their valuables, and in seven cases, his victims died, their bodies discarded near bodies of water. Despite his insistence on his innocence, Galstyan was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole.[1]
Galstyan was born in the Armenian SSR in 1970, but it is unknown when he immigrated to Russia. After living in Moscow for a while, he moved in with a relative in St. Petersburg and began working as a private cab driver, driving a Lada Samara 2.[2] During a visit to his doctor, he was prescribed Azaleptin, a powerful sleeping medicine that could prove fatal if ingested in large doses. Not long after, Galstyan would begin using it in his thefts.[3]
Crimes
Aharon's crimes followed the same modus operandi: upon seeing a suitable passenger, he would pick them up and drive to their desired destination. Unlike most men in his profession, he didn't bargain on prices, his only condition being that they would stop at gas stations to have a drink, to which most of his passengers agreed. After buying the drinks, which ranged from coffee to Coca-Cola, he would lace them with Azaleptin and serve the spiked brew to the victim.[1] A few minutes after drinking it, the victims would become unconscious or fall into a complete coma.[2] Then, Galstyan would drive off the beaten path into isolated areas, where he took all of the money, jewellery and other expensive possessions. In order to further complicate the case, he would also steal the passengers' personal IDs and throw them out of the window while driving. Most of the victims who survived were left on the roadside or near bodies of water, unable to remember what had occurred beforehand. After successfully robbing somebody, Galstyan would visit a pawnshop, where he sold the items in exchange for rubles.[2]
When the initial crimes began in April 2005, the incidents were written off as simple one-offs and were largely ignored by police. However, within the next three years, the city's morgues saw a peculiar rise in drug-related deaths involving Azaleptin, with most of the victims being found near highway roads. Eventually, the local authorities took interest in the case, as the suspicious similarities led them to believe that a criminal was drugging and robbing citizens of their valuables in the area, and the cases were connected.[2]