Alleged killer of Woodmere man extradited to the United States

One of the two suspects in the 2009 murder of Vladimir Tolstykh, of Woodmere, has been extradited to the United States from Australia, where he was arrested five years ago.

Abakar Gadiyev and Arsen Bashirov are accused of stealing $32,000 that was in a payroll bag and beating Tolstykh to death with a hand axe and a hammer not far from Tolstykh’s family business in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn on March 14, 2009. Tolstykh’s daughter was then three weeks old. Video showed both men walking into the garage and attacking Tolstykh.

Gadiyev and Bashirov, both citizens of the central Asian nation of Turkmenistan, then fled for their native country. In 2014, Gadiyev was captured in Australia after New South Wales police secretly took samples of his DNA from cigarettes and drinking glasses, according to the Guardian. He was then arrested. The police had followed him to gather the evidence for the NYPD. Gadiyev was applying to become an Australian citizen, officials said.

Tolstykh’s family fought for the extradition and on Feb. 2, NYPD said that it was happening. Gadiyev was to be arraigned in New York. Previously a reward of $32,000 was offered for information leading to an arrest, which included $20,000 from the family.

In 2016, Rita Tolstykh, Vladimir’s widow, told the New York Post that she was frustrated with the pace of the possible extradition. An Australian official said that “such matter may take some time,” according to the Post story.

Gadiyev will be arraigned on Feb. 4. Bashirov remains in Turkmenistan. The U.S. does not have an extradition treaty with that country.