Police and FSB officers have seized 15,000 databases containing confidential data that are being sold at three electronics markets in Moscow.

The files reveal everything from medical records and bank share-holder lists to information classified as secret by the state.

The police said it had taken months to prepare the operation after a check-up showed that an organized group was selling such databases in Moscow’s electronics markets.

“We performed more than 40 searches and confiscated around 2,500 different CDs and DVDs that contained more than 15,000 different databases,” police representatives said.

The confiscated bases included information on all the country’s legal entities and state bodies, people’s car licence numbers and private addresses, criminal records and unpaid taxes.

Those involved in the business, should their guilt be proven, could face up to seven years in prison for disclosing state secrets.