Five California bodies linked to Russian Mafia

Meyer Muscatel was kidnapped in October 2001 after telling friends he was in danger.

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A kidnap-murder plot tied to the Russia Mafia has left five Southern Californians dead, four people charged with kidnapping, two others charged with collecting ransom payments and authorities scrambling to locate co-conspirators in Russia.

Federal authorities Thursday unsealed indictments against four people charged with kidnapping two Russian immigrants whose bodies were recovered from a Northern California reservoir in recent days.

Three other victims were discovered and identified and a federal law enforcement source said their deaths will be linked to the same group. No murder charges have been filed yet.

The bodies of four men and one woman -- all of Eastern European descent -- were recovered in recent days from the New Melones Reservoir near Stockton, California.

The five are identified as Georgy Safiev, Alexander Umansky, Meyer Muscatel, Nick Kharabadze and Rita Peckler.

Indictments issued March 5, but not disclosed until Thursday, named four defendants charged in two of the kidnappings: Iouri Mikhel, Jurijus Kadamovas, Petro Krylov and Ainar Altmanis. All were arrested by the FBI in mid-February.

Federal authorities delayed the formal announcement of the charges because they feared it might compromise their ongoing criminal investigation, said Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office.

Mikhel and Kadamovas are charged with the kidnapping of Alexander Umansky, who disappeared December 13. His body was recovered Monday.

The two men are accused of threatning to "kill, injure and detain" Umansky while demanding $234,628 in ransom to secure his release. Krylov and Altmanis are charged with aiding and abetting in Umansky's disappearance.

During the investigation into Umansky's disappearance, authorities learned that other Russian immigrants in Southern California were missing and may have been kidnapped.

A second victim, Georgy Safiev, disappeared January 20 from his Beverly Hills office. During his disappearance, Safiev's business manager received ransom calls instructing him to transfer nearly $1 million, according to the U.S. attorney's office.

In their indictment, Mikhel and Kadamovas are also accused of holding Safiev as a hostage. Another $4 million was demanded during Safiev's disappearance but never paid, according to the indictment.

A federal official told CNN the reputed mobsters -- who hail from parts of the former Soviet Union -- selected their kidnap victims based mostly on their ability to pay large sums of money. While a total of up to $5 million was demanded, about $1.2 million was collectively paid, according to the indictment.

The source said it appears the kidnappers never had any intention of returning their victims alive.

In addition to the four in custody, two other suspects have been indicted and are in federal custody on charges of receiving ransom money. The two -- Andrei Agueev, a Russian national residing in the United Arab Emirates, and Andrei Liapine, of Russia -- are charged with receiving and disbursing the ransom money that was sent by Umansky's family.

A federal source said authorities believe all of the members of the conspiracy operating in Los Angeles have been apprehended. The government will likely seek the death penalty in the kidnapping cases, the source said.

The six men charged in the indictment are being held without bond. An initial trial date has been set in April.