Russian rape suspect arrested by immigration in Boardman

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Boardman police helped agents with the Cleveland office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement take Vladimir Letunov into custody just after midnight Friday on an expired Russian visa and allegations that he committed seven rapes in Moscow.

Letunov was living at 137 Shields Road, Apt. 1, with his wife and a 5-year-old girl, when officers took him into custody.

A Boardman police report states the child is “reported to be his daughter.”

He spent several hours in the Mahoning County Adult Justice Center and was taken by immigration officials to Cleveland about 6 a.m., according to Mahoning County officials.

Police took him into custody at just after midnight because that is when his visa expired, Boardman police said.

When Boardman and immigration personnel knocked on Letunov’s door, Letunov answered the door and was taken into custody, according to a Boardman police report.

Immigration officials notified Boardman police about Letunov on Thursday, asking for assistance in the apprehension, saying he was “illegally in this country.”

An immigration agent said Letunov “is also wanted by Moscow police for seven rapes.”

A Mahoning County marriage license for Vladimir V. Letunov, 42, of 137 Shields Road, and Zhanna V. Tomenko, 39, of same, was published in The Vindicator on Feb. 5.