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Fugitive ‘killer’ busted in Australia

Australian cops arrested a Turkmen wanted for the brutal 2009 murder of a Brooklyn storeowner after a cross-continental investigation matched the alleged killer’s DNA to that found on a mask left at the scene, the Post has learned.

Abakar Gadiyev, 32, and Arsen Bashirov – both citizens of the Central Asian country Turkmenistan – allegedly robbed Brighton Beach storeowner Vladimir Tolstykh, 34, of a payroll bag containing $32,000 and then beat him to death on March 14 2009, police sources said.

The suspect seen on security footage.

“The defendant[s] robbed and attacked the victim, a store owner, after lying in wait for him in his parking garage. The police conducted a lengthy investigation which led them to Gadiyev who had fled to Australia and Bashirov who had fled to Turkmenistan,” reads an internal Brooklyn District Attorney memo.

Australia cops then tailed Gaidyev to gather DNA the suspected killer left behind on items like glasses and cigarettes so they could send the DNA samples across the Pacific Ocean to the NYPD, police sources said.

“The evidence they sent us matched the mask [left at the murder scene,]” a police source said.

“I confirm that Abakar Gadiyev, a 32 year old man, a citizen of Turkmenistan, was arrested on 27 February 2014 in response to a provisional arrest request received from the United States of America,” a spokesman for the Australia Attorney General told the Post.

Cops from the New South Wales Australia Police Department collared Gadjiyev because he was applying to become a citizen there, police sources said.

“We’re working together with the [Department of Justice] Office of International Affairs on the Australian extradition,” said a Brooklyn DA spokeswoman, declining to comment further.

Prosecuting Bashirov will be more difficult as the US doesn’t have diplomatic relations with Turkmenistan, police sources said.

“We are currently in the process of attempting to extradite … Bashirov from Turkmenistan,” the DA memo reads.