A Soviet-born gangster turned informant has been arrested in connection with the murder of an American rapper known as “Lil Phat.”

‘Russian Mob’ Turncoat Arrested in Slaying of US Rapper

RIA Novosti

Convicted gangster Mani Chulpayev, who testified against Russian-speaking crime groups in New York, being interviewed in January by an investigative reporter from WSB-TV in Atlanta

00:30 30/04/2013

WASHINGTON, April 29 (By Carl Schreck for RIA Novosti) – A Soviet-born gangster who became a prolific informant against Eurasian crime groups in the United States has been arrested on suspicion of ordering the murder of an American rapper known as “Lil Phat.”

Mani Chulpayev, a confessed pimp and career criminal who testified against gang members in New York City’s predominantly Russian-speaking Brighton Beach neighborhood, has been arrested for allegedly conspiring with three other men to kill rapper Melvin Vernell III, who was shot dead outside an Atlanta hospital last year, local authorities told RIA Novosti on Monday.

“The alleged motive for the murder was drugs and other ‘business’ dealings in which the suspects were involved,” the office of Atlanta’s district attorney, Paul Howard, said in a statement provided to RIA Novosti.

Vernell, 19, was shot repeatedly on the evening of June 7, 2012, as he sat in an Audi A7 in a parking ramp at Northside Hospital’s Women’s Center in Atlanta, where his child was about to be born, according to local media reports.

Howard told WSB television in Atlanta that the two alleged gunmen, who hail from Alabama, tracked the rapper with a Global Positioning System immediately prior to gunning him down.

“He was stalked by these two hit men,” Howard told the station. “It was planned.”

Chulpayev is suspected of ordering the slaying, WSB television reported. He was arrested in Florida on April 12, and two of the other three suspects have also been taken into custody, the district attorney’s office said.

Chulpayev’s arrest comes on the heels of an investigation by local television stations in Houston and Atlanta that tracked down several clients of the convicted gangster’s car business in Atlanta. They said Chulpayev sold them expensive cars that he was unable to provide the title for.

Howard, the district attorney in Atlanta, told WSB television Sunday evening that two days prior to Vernell’s murder, the rapper told police that Chulpayev had leased him a stolen BMW.