It called for kidnapping rich Eastern Europeans who had relocated to Southern California and asking their families and associates for ransom. But prosecutors allege the kidnappers – with purported links to Russian organized crime – didn't honor their end of the ransom bargain.

Even though they received payments, the kidnappers allegedly suffocated five victims, weighted their bodies and dumped them in the New Melones Reservoir on the Stanislaus River in Northern California. They allegedly viewed the abductees as witnesses and killed them. Even after the victims were killed, the kidnappers allegedly continued to demand money from their families and business associates.

Court papers said one of the kidnappers boasted that the group would continue its money-making plan until the bodies they dropped in the reservoir near Yosemite National Park were “stacked on top of each other.”

More than four years after authorities made arrests in the case, jury selection in the first trial stemming from the scheme is under way in Los Angeles federal court. Testimony will likely start in September.

Iouri Mikhel, 41, and Jurijus Kadamovas, 39, face the death penalty if convicted. A third defendant, Petro Krylov, 33, also faces the death penalty and his trial is set for January.

The men have pleaded not guilty. One of Mikhel's defense lawyers, Dale Rubin, said he didn't want to discuss the evidence of the case outside of court. “We'll be fighting tooth and nail at trial,” he said.

The trials are expected to give an insider's view of the defendants' alleged plans, with three of their cohorts – including Kadamovas' girlfriend – agreeing to testify against them.

Because there are no racketeering charges against the defendants, lawyers said it's unlikely that the trials will focus much on the structure of their organization or provide insight into how the purported Russian Mafia operates in California.

Nevertheless, in court papers asking that the jurors' identities be kept secret, prosecutors state the defendants “committed the horrendous crimes at issue within the structure of a violent Russian criminal organization.” The papers note Kadamovas told a victim in a recorded conversation that the kidnapping had been ordered by his “bosses.”

The charges also portray the kidnappers as having international connections. They ordered victims to transfer money to accounts in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. An alleged Siberian cohort, accused of laundering some of the ransom money, is considered a fugitive by the FBI.

Prosecutors also alleged Mikhel and Kadamovas were involved in the abductions and killings of Russian businessmen in Cypress and Turkey, but the judge has barred prosecutors from mentioning the allegations to jurors.

According to court papers, a former law enforcement official with knowledge of how Russian organized crime groups operate said it appears the defendants were part of a large, well-funded criminal enterprise.

“These are not freelancers, I guarantee you that,” said the former official, who requested anonymity for safety concerns. “There is too much money involved, too much cost involved in traveling around the world.”

Russian organized crime groups popped up on law enforcement's radar in the early 1990s, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union. Russian immigrants settled largely in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, N.Y., as well as in Hollywood and sections of the San Fernando Valley in Los Angeles.

“The first generation of criminals is more comfortable perpetrating crimes within its own ethnic group,” the former official said. “What you see is Russians harming Russians, which is exactly what happened here. This particular crime was a very, very brutal one. One of the most brutal I've ever seen.”

The victims include Beverly Hills businessman George Safiev, 37, of Beverly Hills, who owned a film production company, his associate, Nick Kharabadze, 29, of Woodland Hills, and Rita Pekler, 39, of Encino, who was an accountant for Safiev's Matador Media. Also found in the reservoir in March 2002 was the body of Alexander Umansky, 35, of Sherman Oaks, who ran a car stereo and electronics store where Krylov once worked.

Also killed was Meyer Muscatel, 54, a wealthy San Fernando Valley home builder whose body was found in the reservoir in 2001.

Muscatel, Umansky and Safiev were the main targets of the kidnappers, according to the charges. Muscatel and Umansky were invited to meetings to discuss business deals and were then beaten and held hostage.

Umansky was abducted and killed even though his family wired $235,000 in ransom money to the kidnappers, including a payment of $145,000 sent after he was dead, according to the government.

Both Pekler and Kharabadze were abducted to lure Safiev.

In December 2001, Pekler was abducted, with her kidnappers demanding she arrange a meeting with Safiev. That effort failed and Pekler was killed, documents state.

A month later, Kadamovas' girlfriend, Natalya Solovyeva, lured Kharabadze – an aspiring film producer whose mother was a noted Russian actress – to meet with her. The defendants then allegedly used Kharabadze to ensnare Safiev. The kidnappers forced Safiev to transfer $969,000 into a Miami account.

After Safiev and Kharabadze were killed, the defendants allegedly continued to try to get a business associate of Safiev's to pay additional ransom, sending a letter that sought about $4 million.

For each victim, the ending was the same: death and a long drive to the New Melones Reservoir, 40 miles east of Stockton in the lower Sierra Nevada foothills.

In February 2002, the killing stopped after FBI agents – who were investigating the abductions – took members of the scheme into custody. In Mikhel's home, authorities found a safe containing four sets of handcuffs – two of those sets had the DNA of Safiev and Kharabadze on them – two boxes of a prescription sedative and a syringe, court papers state. Pekler and Muscatel had the drug in their systems at the time of their deaths, prosecutors allege.