From racketeering to selling grave photos. What the Project X group, which recruits people to transport migrants from Belarus to the EU, looks like from the inside
In early April 2026, identical messages appeared in several Russian-language Telegram chats in Europe. A user under the nickname Corrupted offered a "driver vacancy with a personal car in Europe." Payment — $2000 per trip, 2—3 trips per week. Requirements: own four-seat car, no experience needed. We found out that this is how people are recruited, willing to transport migrants who have entered the EU from Belarus for money. We uncovered the migrant transportation routes and the community of people who recruit drivers.
Illustrative image generated by a neural network
In early April 2026, a message appeared in a chat for Belarusians in Vilnius. A user under the nickname Corrupted offered a driver vacancy. «Route 80 km, 16 people, can pick up everyone in turn. $200 for each person». He sent this message to dozens of other job search chats in Lithuania, Poland, and Latvia.
Message from the chat for Belarusians in Vilnius
«You need to transport migrants», — Corrupted immediately admitted in a private message. The threads led to the Telegram chat of a group calling itself Project X.
A multi-link scheme
Project X — is one of many similar communities. For transporting migrants, they have created an extensive recruitment system. People like Corrupted perform HR manager functions. Their main task is to ensure a continuous flow of new drivers who have personal transport and the right to move legally within the EU.
First, recruiters publish job advertisements in popular Telegram channels for Russian-speaking migrants (for example, «Cargo Transportation», «Poland Work», «Russians in Czechia», «Latvia Bazar»).
The vacancy is described as «a driver with a personal car in Europe for transporting passengers over distances of about 100 km». Candidates are promised a stable flow of orders, no work experience required, and offered an extremely high payment, up to $2000 per trip with full fuel compensation. The true nature of the work is revealed in private messages, once a potential candidate is already interested in the financial terms.
Transboundary corridor: from Dagda to Berlin
Correspondence from the closed chat illustrates how cleverly the logistics are designed. One of the main routes starts near the Latvian city of Dagda (near the border with Belarus).
Starting point of the route — the city of Dagda in Latvia
From there, migrants are transported through several points across all of Lithuania, bypassing major roads.
The route along which migrants are transported. Screenshot from the community
They are driven to the village of Kučiūnai, which is 2.5 km from the Polish border. There, migrants are dropped off to cross the border on foot, after which another driver picks them up on the Polish side. For each person on the route, $1000 is paid, of which $650 goes to the drivers, and $350 is taken by the operator.
Final point of the route along which migrants are transported. Screenshot from the community
Another route runs near Belarusian Lyntupy on a road next to Sirvėta Regional Park. «No cops here, the spot is good», — Corrupted reassured his drivers. The price is $200 per person, they can be transported in shifts, the road is a little over 80 km.
Starting point of the route. Screenshots from Google Maps
A third route goes through Lithuanian Panevėžys. If picking up people from there, the price is $250 per person, a car with four seats is sufficient.
In the Project X team community, the user Corrupted published the full scheme: migrants are transported through Latvia and Lithuania via various routes to the Polish border, dropped off 5—10 kilometers from the border crossing point so they cross on foot. Then a driver picks them up on the Polish side and takes them to Germany. There, they claim they don't know how they entered the EU and apply for asylum.
At each point, the car and driver change.
They are also looking for buses or trucks from regions near Riga and Kaunas. Before the transport with migrants, which can load from 30 to 100 people, a scout car always travels ahead to check the road for police checkpoints.
From one successful truck trip, drivers can receive up to $65,000, while the operator, who risks nothing, — can get up to $35,000. Migrants can be transported several thousands (of dollars worth) by car overnight.
Who curates the migrant recruitment community?
The account @alcopone123 with id5961184921, which is listed as a curator for driver search in the EU, previously belonged to Russian Dmitry Karpov. He is originally from the village of Trudarmey, Prokopyevsky district, Kemerovo region, Russia.
Dmitry Karpov. Photo from his VKontakte page
He was in debt, and even microcredit organizations denied him loans. Karpov was convicted several times for theft and drugs. The last time he was placed in a pre-trial detention center in the summer of 2024 for trying to pick up an alpha-PVP drug stash from a hideout in dachas near Novokuznetsk, Russia.
From the pre-trial detention center, Karpov was recruited for the war. In April 2025, he died in a fierce assault near Selidovo. Recently, his body was delivered home and buried.
A Project X participant known by the nickname Q intercepted the phone number, and with it, the account. According to information from the chat, this is 24-year-old Vladislav from Voronezh, Russia. He was recently kicked out of the team for defrauding his associates of $20,000.
Vladislav, hiding under the nickname Q
Earlier, Q was one of the main recruiters of «couriers» — for fraudulent call centers. He promised considerable earnings, thousands of dollars a week. To complicate police work, they recruited people from other regions or countries, for whom they found money for flights and accommodation.
But, according to information from the chat, Vladislav was eventually detained when he tried to trick a courier from his own group and pocket the money. The account he previously used to write is now inactive, and Vladislav himself told former associates that «he has already signed a contract and will go to the SMO» (Special Military Operation).
Chronic debtor from Kazakhstan with two children
We found another person who recruited drivers through the chat. This is 37-year-old Kazakhstan citizen Mikhail Deev from Atyrau. In chats, he hides under the nickname @HotCKnukless (id942767120). Deev is not an organizer, but actively sought carriers for migrants.
Mikhail Deev. Photo from his VKontakte page
According to databases, back in 2005, as a minor, he evaded receiving a secondary education and was detained in Almaty. He was also detained in 2010 for petty hooliganism.
The man has two young daughters. Previously worked as a security guard in various stores. Now Mikhail is listed as the director of LLC «Vb Company» — a company in Almaty that sells wholesale plumbing equipment. However, it seems to be a fake office where he is a nominal director, and his life more closely resembles an endless war with creditors.
Enforcement officers have repeatedly issued orders against Deev prohibiting him from disposing of property due to systematic non-payments. He has debts to banks and microfinance organizations, unpaid fines for crossing the road in an improper place. In total — about $1000, which he could never repay.
Mikhail Deev. Photo from his VKontakte page
In May 2021, he unsuccessfully tried to obtain another microloan through the qanat.kz service.
Mikhail has been involved in illicit earnings since 2022. His activity is not limited to migrants. Among his digital traces are:
- searching for malicious software of the RAT class (Remote Access Trojan) to gain control over victims' devices;
- discussing digital blackmail and extortion schemes;
- spreading phishing links.
College student and drug addict from Moldova
Another recruiter from the chat — is 18-year-old Moldovan Grigory Koval (@x01_x66, id1942580991). He finished school in 2024 and entered the College of Veterinary Medicine and Agricultural Economics in Bratușeni on a state-funded basis.
He calls himself a Gagauz — a people living in eastern Moldova in the autonomous territory of the same name. Gagauzia is notable for the pro-Russian sentiments of its residents.
Grigory previously worked as a drug dealer. In August 2024, he reported in one of the chats that «he scattered marijuana around Chisinau». He himself used drugs before, but «has been clean for two years».
He also boasted that he donates a percentage of each crime to animal aid charities because «he loves them very much».
But in communication with victims, whom he calls «mammoths», the guy behaves very cruelly and is proud of it. Grigory calls himself a «psychologist» who enjoys tormenting people's gullibility, extracting their last money or forcing them to perform humiliating acts for promises to return funds.
At the end of March 2026, the guy complained that he would literally have nothing to eat soon, and admitted that he and his friends had broken into houses to steal scrap metal.
Project X team
The Project X community was formed in late 2025. Previously, they worked in several directions, and only began developing the migrant direction in early April.
ProjectX community logo
They started by scamming cryptocurrency users. According to messages from the participants themselves, the active phase began several months before recruiting drivers. The essence of the scheme was to create fake cryptocurrency exchange platforms that lured victims, and after transferring funds, simply blocked them.
They also have another scheme — racketeering. The idea is to tell people that cryptocurrencies can only be exchanged in a mysterious organization's office, call them a fake taxi, or arrange a meeting in a quiet place, and then lure them to a secluded spot and rob them. They claim to operate in some cities of Kazakhstan, Moscow, St. Petersburg, London, Prague, and Riga, as well as in Germany.
Project X works with developers and sellers of Remote Access Trojans (RAT). In closed chats, they trade malicious software for the Android operating system — AhMyth, SpyNote, and Venom stealer.
Such programs give full control over the victim's phone. After gaining access to private photos, correspondence, and banking clients, the group uses this information for theft and extortion of funds.
They also work on scamming pensioners, looking for couriers to collect money.
They also recruit people for the war in Russia. Notably, the rates there vary greatly — for a resident of Yakutia, they pay significantly less than for a resident of Moscow ($330 versus $3300).
Messages from Project X Team chat
Another direction of theirs is finding people to photograph the graves of deceased Russian soldiers, and then deceiving their relatives by selling the data to Ukrainian fraudulent call centers. They pay less than $1 per photo.
Treasurer and other administrators
The second key figure in managing migrant transportation, alongside Q, is the user under the nickname Kaznachey (previously known as Flyer and A$eXeL). He started by working with darknet drug shops and does not disclose personal information, only giving commands. He might be from Ukraine, as his first messages were posted in Ukrainian chats, where he says he donates from his criminal earnings to Ukrainian soldiers.
Image of user Kaznachey in Telegram
Kaznachey supervises the work of specialized Telegram bots that automatically process applications and record incoming funds. He issues technical reports to other participants. Moreover, he possesses administrative access rights to these bots, using management commands.
Kaznachey fully controls the community's finances. He writes about maximum transaction volumes, confirms the fulfillment of obligations to performers, and resolves balance issues. In addition to finances, he performs disciplinary functions, stimulating the activity of recruiters and spammers. In the hierarchy, he is at the level of top management, interacting with developers («coders») and managing dozens of ordinary performers («workers»).
Another administrator of the community, nicknamed FONVIZIN, might be from Belarus — he uses a Belarusian phone number.
Image from FONVIZIN's account. The apartment interior matches what FONVIZIN previously published.
And even earlier, he was subscribed on Telegram as A. Yu. Gramovich — it's unknown if this is his real name, but the only known person with these initials participated in a student conference at Francisk Skaryna Gomel State University. There he gave a report on the topic «Development of an Educational 2D Game».
Other administrators live in post-Soviet countries — Russia, Azerbaijan, and others.
For migrant transportation, the community integrated into an even larger network and works under the guidance of a curator, who is mentioned in dialogues and gives directives to activate or suspend traffic across European borders. The identities of the business organizers are unknown to us.
Atmosphere in Project X team
An atmosphere of total distrust prevails in the community. Participants constantly suspect each other of stealing money or leaking information to competitors. It even escalates to open threats of physical violence: for example, participants discuss a plan to stab one of the members for «twisting the cards» (i.e., stealing money).
Among the chat participants, there is an epidemic of drug addiction. There is constant discussion about acquiring and using narcotic substances. Participants regularly mention not only the use of marijuana but also heavy synthetic stimulants such as mephedrone and alpha-PVP («salts»). Phrases like «I've been on salts for a month» and many descriptions of the consequences of drug use appear in the correspondence.
Girls-teenagers aged 13 and older regularly appear in the chat, whom older participants openly solicit for intimacy or offer work on webcams and calling victims. It is also considered normal to involve their own partners, even minors, in the work.
As a result, the community appears to be a haven for addicted marginals involved in crime. On the one hand, they discuss deals for «$10—50 thousand», «Teslas» and vacations in Dubai, and boast to each other about a luxurious life. But their real life is such that they ask each other to borrow a few dollars, complain that they don't have money to pay utilities, eat mayonnaise instead of proper food, and admit that in the oven «there's only an empty vodka bottle».
User FONVIZIN boasts about earnings, probably fake. On the computer opposite — a request to pay for Windows activation.
It is likely that the organizers of the community live well, but most participants either earn very little or immediately squander their illicit earnings.