MOSCOW: Russian investigators suspect a regional penitentiary chief of dismantling a stretch of a local road and selling off the concrete slabs used in the paving.

The Investigative Committee said in a statement Wednesday that they have detained Alexander Protopopov, penitentiary chief for the northern region of Komi, and are going to charge him with embezzlement.

Investigators said Protopopov and other local penitentiary officials gave the green light in 2014 to dismantling 7,000 reinforced concrete slabs on a 50-kilometre (30-mile) road before selling off the slabs for about $79,000.