External links

Flak Magazine: Review of Red mafya, 08-20-00 by Ben Welch
MSNBC.com - Russian mob trading arms for cocaine with Colombia rebels by Sue Lackey
CBS News: Russian Mafia's Worldwide Grip
BBC News: So who are the Russian mafia ?
BBC News: The rise and rise of the Russian mafia
BBC News: How Russia's mafia is taking over Israel's underworld
CNN - A Russian mob grows in Brooklyn: Law officials finger alleged 'godfather' by Peg Tyre
Russian Mobsters - Roman Abramovich and friends
Suspected Georgian Crime Boss Arrested - Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
The Red Mafia: A Legacy of Communism by Annelise Anderson
Oxford Scholarship: The Russian Mafia
Russian mafya become more active in Eastern Europe Jane's Intelligence Review May 2005
reviews of various books on Russian organized crime

CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Accountant Faces Drug Sentence,Totally Jewish, Nov 26, 2001"A chartered accountant, who played a key role in an international plot to launder millions of pounds worth of Israeli drug money, has been told by the judge to expect a jail sentence. Appearing in Southwark Crown Court, Philip Lyons, from Stanmore, pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to converting the proceeds of drug trafficking and criminal conduct between June 1 and March 7 this year. The dad-of-three, who was part of a gang that laundered the proceeds of numerous heroin and ecstasy deals and then sent the money to Spain, was remanded in custody."

The Jewish Laundry of Drug Money, translated from the Hebrew by Israel Shahak, former head of the Israel Civil Rights Association. [This piece, one of the first looks in English at the Jewish/Israeli involvement in the international drug scene, originally appeared in the Israeli magazine Maariv, September 2, 1994. It can be found here at Zionism and Israeli Apartheid, a pro-Palestinian site]"In recent months the [US government] Eldorado agents discovered a new center of operations. It is termed The Cocaine Triangle. Its sides are: Colombian drug barons, Israeli-Jewish money launderers and Jewish-Russian mafiosi. The Colombians funnel the money, the Israelis launder it, the Russian mafiosi (who have recently overrun New York in droves) provide the security and the muscle. A New York journalist recently told 'Ma'ariv'; 'The Israeli Jews are gaining notoriety in the money laundering market. You need only look at the list of arrests and the inditements of the past 3 years, in order to grasp the enormous scope of Israeli involvement in that field.'"

Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America. New York Review of Books, November 16, 2000 [book review, posted at Center for Defense Information/Johnson's Russia List]"Whatever the American laws, a successful campaign against Russian mobsters will require the cooperation of other governments, particularly those of Russia and Israel, the two countries that are now the principal residences of most Russian crime bosses ...'Of all the nations where the Russian mob has established a presence, none has been more deeply compromised than the State of Israel,' [Robert] Friedman writes, adding that the Russian mafia has 'become a grave threat to the stability of Israel.' Although this may be a bit hyperbolic, the Russian mafia does have a strong, safe base in Israel -- a story that American and Israeli journalists have largely overlooked. One FBI report observes, for example, that most members of Mogilevich's criminal organization have Israeli passports. And Jonathan Winer told Friedman (when Winer was still the State Department's crime expert), 'There is not a major Russian organized crime figure whom we are tracking who does not also carry an Israeli passport.'"

Red Mafiya, by Robert Friedman. TimeWarner. [sample chapter]"In the 1970s, more than forty thousand Russian Jews settled in Brighton Beach, the formerly stolid working-class Jewish neighborhood that inspired Neil Simon's gentle play Brighton Beach Memoirs. It was under the shadow of the elevated subway tracks on Brighton Beach Avenue, bustling with Russian meat markets, vegetable pushcarts, and bakeries, that the Russian gangsters resumed their careers as professional killers, thieves, and scoundrels. By the time of [Monya] Elson's arrival, Brighton Beach had already become the seat of the dreaded Organizatsiya, the Russian Jewish mob."

Russian Organized Crime. PBS/Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS) Task Force Report (1997)"To date, U.S. Iaw enforcement officials have established a clear relationship between ROC [Russian Organized Crime] groups and La Cosa Nostra (LCN), the Italian-American criminal network in the United States ... Cooperative efforts between ROC groups and the Colombian drug cartels are centered in Miami, where the local FBI of office characterized the Russian gangsters as 'very brutal...they are very sophisticated. They are computer literate. They hit the ground running.' Miami represents a gateway to both the United States and Latin America ... Two major drug smuggling cases in 1996 illustrate the transnational reach of ROC. The first involved Russians as well as individuals from the Netherlands, Ukraine, Belarus, and African countries in an attempt to smuggle four tons of drugs via Russia. The second case involved ROC operations in five West European countries and Russia; the illicit activities led to a joint operation among the involved governments against a transnational drug trafficking group--and to the confiscation of 2.5 tons of drugs. In testimony before the U.S. Senate, FBI director Louis Freeh stated that some 27 ROC groups had been identified as operating in the United States. The activities of these groups are believed to center primarily around such major U.S. cities as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, Chicago, and New York. One MVD official stated that ROC activities in the United States include money laundering, illegal money transactions, and narcotics trafficking. Other countries with a known and active ROC presence include Germany, with 47 groups; and Italy, with 60 groups. The MVD estimates that over 100 ROC groups are active in at least 50 countries."

US Senate: Russian Mafia Extortion in NHL More Extensive. Sports Illustrated, July 8, 1997"The extent of extortion by the Russian mafia among NHL [National Hockey League] players is greater than previously believed, according to the united States Senate. ESPN, citing a 15-month Senate investigation produced more than 100 interviews with NHL players, officials, owners, team officials and agents, reports that serious conclusions have been made about the Russian mafia's influence among NHL players. There are 50 former Soviet players in the NHL and most of them are Russian ... 'If you add in people who would know firsthand about extortion that occurred, I would venture to say, based upon our investigation, that a significant percentage of Russian hockey players skating in the NHL have been extorted in some way,' Senate investigator Michael Bopp told ESPN. 'Based on the sample of players we spoke to, I would conclude that a third of the players had some direct involvement.'"

The Most Dangerous Mobster in the World. Village Voice [New York], May 20-26, 1998"The enigmatic leader of the [Russian] Red Mafia is a 52-year-old Ukrainian-born Jew named Semion Mogilevich. He is a shadowy figure known as the ''Brainy Don''--he holds an economics degree from the University of Lvov--and until now, he has never been exposed by the media. But the Voice has obtained hundreds of pages of classified FBI and Israeli intelligence documents from August 1996, and these documents--as well as recent interviews with a key criminal associate and with dozens of law enforcement sources here and abroad--describe him as someone who has become a grave threat to the stability of Israel and Eastern Europe ... The FBI and Israeli intelligence assert that he traffics in nuclear materials, drugs, prostitutes, precious gems, and stolen art. His contract hit squads operate in the U.S. and Europe. He controls everything that goes in and out of Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport, a ''smugglers' paradise,'' says [Monya] Elson. Mogilevich bought a bankrupt airline in a former Central Asian Soviet republic for millions of dollars in cash so he could haul heroin out of the Golden Triangle. Most worrisome to U.S. authorities is Mogilevich's apparently legal purchase of virtually the entire Hungarian armaments industry, jeopardizing regional security, NATO, and the war against terrorism."

Telling His Story. ABC news, September 23, 2000"The man suspected of being at the center of an alleged plot to launder as much as $15 billion through the Bank of New York by the Russian mob today denied any involvement in the scandal that has rocked the international financial establishment. In an exclusive interview with ABCNEWS’ Gillian Findlay, [Jewish Russian mobster] Semyon Mogilevich — who describes himself as a publisher and consultant to a cereal company — says the allegations have ruined him."

The Traffickers. Russian Crime Groups and Syndicates. U. S. Department of State"The Director of Operation Odessa, a Florida task force designed to combat Russian organized crime, believes that individual criminals, not necessarily organized crime, are trafficking Russian women to Florida. He claims that women are being trafficked to Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Jackson, Palm Beach, and increasingly the Florida panhandle. In his opinion, Russian entrepreneurs, with ties to Russian organized crime, are importing women for Florida's sex industry. For example, one Russian, Sergey Skobeltsyn, with alleged ties to the Russian organized crime group Kazanskaya, bought two strip clubs, Pure Platinum and Solid Gold, for $8 million dollars in late 1996. And Ludwig Fainberg [who once served in the Israeli army; Navarro, Mireya. New York Times, 3-7-97, p. A22], a Russian mafia figure with alleged ties to Colombian drug traffickers, was also heavily involved in running a strip club called Porkys, which likely involved trafficked women. FBI headquarters also has information that the following major Russian organized crime syndicates— the Izmailovskaya, Dagestantsy, Kazanskaya, and Solntsenskaya— are involved in the prostitution industry throughout the United States. Given the way these organized crime syndicates operate overseas and the brutality of these organizations, it is likely that this involvement in the US includes trafficking in women through the use of deception, threats, and violence."

Russian 'Mafiya' Takes on NY. The Russia Journal. May 15, 2000"Police and investigators in New York told The Observer that they are connecting a sudden string of brutal murders to the mighty Russian 'Mafiya' who are taking over the city's underworld and pose what one source calls 'by far our greatest threat to stability and the rule of law' ... Ex-Bank of New York Executive Lucy Edwards [born Ludmilla Pritzker] and Peter Berlin admitted to masterminding the largest money-laundering scheme in U.S. history involving as much as $10 billion in 160,000 wire transfers, mostly connected to the Russian mob, corrupt Russian banks and their gun-toting clients. Two other murders have been handed over to the crime squad specializing in the Russian mafia. Orthodox Russian Jew Mark Simon's bullet-riddled body was found last month. He was allegedly involved in massive credit card fraud."

Russian Jewish Leader Charged with Kidnap. The Independent [Great Britain], January 25, 2001"The deputy head of the Russian Jewish Congress, Mikhail Mirilashvili, has been arrested in St Petersburg and charged with kidnapping two people. The chairman of the congress, Vladimir Gusinsky, a media magnate, is already under house arrest in Spain after Moscow demanded his extradition. Police say the two cases are unconnected, but the Russian Jewish community will be alarmed that the authorities are pursuing two of its most prominent members. Mr Mirilashvili, who holds joint Israeli and Russian citizenship [so does Gusinksky], was due to leave Russia this week with the Israeli President, Moshe Katzav, who is on a state visit. Mr Mirilashvili is a director of the St Petersburg company Russian Video, which was bought by Media-Most, controlled by Mr Gusinsky, in 1997. Mr Gusinsky was later accused of defrauding the state by buying the company for $10m (£6.6m) - well below its real value. Over the past year the Kremlin has relentlessly feuded with Mr Gusinsky and Media-Most, which owns much of the independent media in Russia, because of its criticism of the government."

Spain Holds Israeli Drug Lord Wanted by U.S. [Associated Press/Haaretz] May 23, 2001"An Israeli [Oded Tuito] described as a major international smuggler of the drug Ecstasy is in custody in Spain awaiting a court decision on an American request for his extradition ...Spanish newspapers report that Tuito ran a massive smuggling operation in Europe, Israel, and the United States ... Israeli crime syndicates with links to Russian mobs are the primary source of Ecstasy smugglied in the United States, according to the DEA."'

Sammy the Bull' Trial Lifts Veil on Israelis in Ecstasy Trade.[Jewish] Forward, January 19, 2001"A celebrated mob informant's trial on drug-distribution charges is opening a window on an aspect of the drug trade that many New Yorkers would rather ignore. According to federal and local law enforcement officials, Israeli criminals have cornered the market on the drug ecstasy, controlling by some accounts as much as 75% of the American market ... According to the Drug Enforcement Agency's web page, 'In recent years, Israeli organized crime syndicates, some composed of Russian émigrés associated with Russian organized crime syndicates, have forged relationships with Western European traffickers, and gained control over a significant share of the European market. The Israeli syndicates are currently the primary sources to U.S. distribution groups." ... 'There are a lot of Israeli criminals in the three major hubs, New York, Miami and Los Angeles, so they didn't have to reinvent the wheel," Mr. Abramovsky said ... In July 1999, after a 21-month investigation, a joint federal-state organized crime-drug enforcement task force uncovered a smuggling operation that relied mostly on carriers of an unexpected nature in the drug business: young chasidic men. ... Sean Erez, an Israeli who according to the authorities ran the ring, is still in Amsterdam, where authorities are weighing a request for extradition to the United States. In February 2000, another ecstasy ring ran by Israeli citizens was exposed in Queens, N.Y. The group, allegedly headed by Oshri Amar, the son of a famous 1950s-era Israeli pop singer, was alleged by authorities to be distributing MDMA in clubs on the East Coast and in California. Some of these clubs made huge headlines in the New York press in the mid-1990s, where they were dubbed 'drug bazaars' ... Drug officials assert that additional side effects include anxiety and depression, and in the long run also permanent brain damage. The ecstasy trade is building a new reputation for Israeli criminal muscle, especially when combined with Russian gangs."

Stripper-Hasid Connection Bared by 'Ecstasy' Bust. New York Post. May 25, 2001"An international 'ecstasy' kingpin [Israeli Oded Tuito], busted for smuggling the mind-bending pill into New York, was using leggy strippers, Hasidic teens in yarmulkes, and senior citizens as New Age drug mules, authorities say ... An Israeli national, named Sean Erez, allegedly tutored by Tuito in ecstasy smuggling, had risen through the ranks of Tuito's drug mob ... [Erez] hired Hasidic high-school boys ... These are kids who spend hours a day in the synagogue ... Federal Judge Leo Glasser ... sentenced nearly a dozen local Hasidic men. In March, Miami authorities busted a 71-year old retired Queens tailor ... Machloof Ben-Chitrit."

Ecstasy Lord Cops Plea Deal. New York Post, June 28, 2001"An international "ecstasy" kingpin, whose organization flooded the United States with the popular club drug, is facing 17 years in prison after copping a plea in federal court yesterday. Prosecutors charge Jacob Orgad, 45, sold hundreds of thousands of pills to Israeli national Ilan Zarger. Zarger pleaded guilty in January to overseeing a ring that the feds say supplied Salvatore 'Sammy Bull' Gravano."

Two Israelis Arrested in Largest Drug Bust in NYC History.Jerusalem Post, July 20, 2001"Two Israeli citizens were arrested Tuesday night in Manhattan on drug possession charges after police seized more than a million Ecstasy tablets, the largest drug bust in New York City history. Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik announced Wednesday that David Roash, 25, and Israel Ashkenazi, 28, both of Tel Aviv, were being held in Queens Criminal Court pending drug possession charges. The two face eight and a half years to life in prison if convicted. The pink, blue, and white Ecstasy pills, which weighed a total of 450 pounds and have a street value $40 million, and nearly $200,000 in cash were found in a studio apartment near the financial district."

Mafia Personalities

Evsei Agron (Brooklyn-based crime boss; murdered, 1985.)
Marat Balagula (Brooklyn-based crime boss and originator of billion-dollar gasoline bootlegging scam; released from American prison, 2004.)
Arbi Barayev (Chechen warlord/crime boss; killed by Russian armed forces, 2001.)
Viktor Bout (Arms merchant; international fugitive.)
Yuri Brokhin (Famed expatriate Russian dissident/international drug dealer and jewel thief; murdered, 1982.)
Michael Cherney (Israeli-based Russian crime boss.)
Konstantin Dimitrov-Samokovetsa (Bulgarian drug kingpin; murdered, 2003.)
Vitali Dyomochka (Russian mobster who produced a TV series chronicling his own activities.)
Monya Elson (Prolific professional killer; convicted of three murders and imprisoned.)
Ludwig "Tarzan" Fainberg (Southern Florida crime boss; deported to Israel.)
Georgi Iliev (Second boss of Bulgarian VIS crime group; murdered, 2005.)
Vasil Iliev (First boss of Bulgarian VIS crime group; murdered, 1995.)
Vyacheslav "Yaponchik" Ivankov (America's most powerful vor v zakone; deported to Russia.)
Zakhar "Shakro" Kalashov (International vor v zakone boss; jailed in Spain.)
Ivo Karamanski (Bulgarian crime boss; murdered, 1998.)
Otar "Otarik" Kvantrishvili (Moscow extortionist; murdered, 1994)
Ruslan Labazanov (Chechen crime boss; murdered, 1996.)
Sergey "Mikhas" Mikhaylov (Moscow-based head of Solntsevskaya bratva crime group.)
Semion Mogilevich (Billionaire Budapest-based crime lord.)
Boris Nayfeld (International drug kingpin.)
Khozh-Ahmed Noukhaev (Chechen crime boss.)
Alexander Solonik (Professional killer; murdered, 1997.)
Nikolay "Hoza" Suleimanov (Chechen head of Obshina crime group; murdered, 1994.)
Alimzhan Tokhtakhounov (Arms dealer and accused Olympic fixer.)
Alex and Vladimir Zilber (Fraternal team of gasoline bootleggers; Vladimir crippled by assassination attempt; Alex living in Russia.)

Organizations

The Solntsevskaya bratva, or Solntsevskaya brotherhood (Russian:Солнцевская братва), is one of if not the most powerful organized crime group operating in Moscow today.
Dolgoprudnenskaya is a Russian mafia organization and is considered one of the largest groups of organized crime operating in Moscow. It is named after Dolgoprudniy, which is a Moscow suburb. It was founded in 1988 and is allegedly very influential.[1]

The Izmailovskaya gang (Russian: Измайловская) is considered one of the country's most important and oldest Russian Mafia groups in Moscow and also has a presence in Tel Aviv, Paris, Toronto, Miami and New York City.[2] It was founded during the 1980s under the leadership of Oleg Ivanov and was recently estimated to consist of about 200 active members (according to other data of 300-500 people). In principle, the organization is divided into two separate bodies - Izmailovskaya and Gol'yanovskaya,[3] which utilize quasi-military ranks and strict internal discipline. It is involved extensively in murder-for-hire, extortions, and infiltration of legitimate businesses.[4]

The Tambov Gang of Saint Petersburg

The Obshina, or Chechen mafia, is a formidable organized crime group in the Russian underworld. According to experts, ethnic Chechen criminal gangs form the most dominant minority criminal group in Russia. It is believed some gangs may have ties to Chechen militant factions.

Composition

Aside from the ethnic Russian crime groups, there are large multi ethnic organizations as well as other very large and influential single ethnic groups such as Chechens, Ukrainians, Azeris, Georgians and so on. Chechens make up a disproportionate amount of Russian mafia members inside Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus, but only play a small role in the Russian Mafia's overseas membership.
The majority of organized crime groups and their members within Russia are ethnically Russian. Furthermore, the majority of violent organized crime groups and their members are also ethnically Russian within Russia’s borders. Ethnic Russian crime groups operate within every major Russian city and consist of small time gangs involved in burglaries to high crime such as drug and weapons smuggling. Ethnic Russian crime groups consist of ex KGB officers, ex Spetznaz members, businessmen, Afghan war vets and many other former government employed individuals as well as common thugs and criminals. Even though many of the Russian mobsters covered in western media have Jewish ancestry, Russian Jews within Russia represent a small fraction of the criminals involved in organized crime. However, many have managed to reach high rankings inside the different organized crime groups within Russia.
NOTE: The amount of Russian Jews involved in organized crime outside of Russia is much higher than within Russia. A high percentage of Russian emigres are Jewish and as a result Russian organized crime groups within the United states, Israel and Europe have a high number of Jewish members.
The Russian Mafia also has a multitude of other nationalities such as Ukrainians, Belarusians, Armenians (tied to the Armenian Power gang), Moldovans, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, Georgians, Dagestanis, Azeris, and others. Additionally, countries such as Armenia, Georgia, Ukraine, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, and Moldova have their own mafia organizations which have extensive links to the Russian mafia.

History

Despite seeming to arise during the Fall of the Soviet Union, organized crime had existed throughout the imperial and communist eras as a form of open rebellion against the systems in the form of the "Thief's World". During this time organized crime was fiercely honor-based and often attacked and killed traitors among their ranks. Nevertheless, during World War II, many enlisted in the Russian Army resulting in the Suka Wars, which killed many of the thieves who were branded as government allies as well as the original thief underworld during Stalin's reign. The criminals, seeking a new survival strategy, began to ally with the elite in the Soviet Union as a means of survival, creating a powerful Russian black market.
The real breakthrough for criminal organizations occurred during the economic disaster and mass immigration of the 1990s that followed the fall of the Soviet Union. Desperate for money, many former government workers turned to crime, others joined the large numbers of Soviet citizens who moved overseas primarily to the United States and the Mafia became a natural extension of this trend. According to official estimates, some 100,000 Russians are committed mobsters, with a large but unknown number engaging in these criminal practices on and off.
Backed by its extensive connection to the apparatchick power network of the Soviet Union, between 1992 and 1994 the Russian Mafia targeted the commercial centers of power, seizing control of the nation’s fragile banking system. At first the criminal gangs were content to merely “park” their large cash holdings in legitimate institutions, but soon they realized that the next step was the easiest of all: direct ownership of the bank itself.
Banking executives, reform-minded business leaders, even investigative journalists, were systematically assassinated or kidnapped. In 1993 alone, members of the eight criminal gangs that control the Moscow underworld murdered 10 local bankers. Calling themselves “Thieves in Law” (vori v zakone), Russian gangsters have murdered ninety-five bankers in the last five years.
Beginning in the late 1970s systematically, the Communist bloc began encouraging large numbers of its people to emigrate to the United States and Europe. Encouraged by diplomatic feelers put out by the Soviet government, both the Carter and Reagan Administration in association with the government of Israel, began pushing for the emigration of the Soviets large Jewish population. That was soon joined by other non-Jewish ethnicities. By the late 1980s large colonies of former Soviet and Communist bloc subjects had been established throughout the United States. Most of these ethnic colonies became dominated by the Soviet crime groups who answered to their associates and superiors in the USSR. After the fall of the Soviet Union that emigration increased.
Via their large communities throughout the West and in particular the United States, since the mid-90s the crime groups have been trying to expand their criminal empire into America, most often via the trafficking of drugs and illegal weapons. This has led to some brutal wars with the organizations already present, including the Italian Mafia, Chinese Triads, Irish Mob the Latino Narcos, Mexican Gangs and the Japanese Yakuza all of whom also had their own communities to operate inside of with protection.
This has led to a number of alliances between the gangs of the former USSR and others. The group is believed to have links to Colombian drug smugglers and many smaller gangs as a result of the fall of the Soviet Union. Some also believe they are at the heart of gangs smuggling illegal workers west to the European Union and often Britain, though no proof has been offered for this at this time. The home of the Russian Mafia in America is in the Brighton Beach (dubbed by Russians "Little Odessa") neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City.
Over the last few years, the FBI and Russian security services have tried to crack down on the Mafia, though the impact of this has yet to be measured.

Background

Amid the political uncertainty that has engulfed the former Soviet Union since the end of the Cold War in 1991, rampant, unchecked organized crime has laid waste to noteworthy democratic reforms and contributed to an economic and moral meltdown within the 15 newly independent republics. Intelligence reports emanating out of Russia peg the numerical size of the Russian Mafia ("mafiya") at 100,000 members owing allegiance to 8,000 stratified crime groups who control 70-80% of all private business and 40% of the nation’s wealth [1]
Many of the bosses and main members of the Russian mafia are believed to be ex-Soviet Army and ex-KGB officers who lost their posts in the reduction of forces that began in 1993 after the end of the Cold War. It is also believed that some of the groups' enforcers are former Russian military. Russian mobsters also recruit athletes, including boxers, martial artists, and weightlifters.
The Russian Mafia appears to be organized in similar ways to the Italian mafia. [citation needed] It is believed, however, to be a very loose organization with internal feuds and murders being commonplace. A particularly brutal practice rumored to be utilized by the Russian Mafia is the killing of not only the individual who has "snitched" or turned against the Organizatsiya, but also the individual's family. The Russian mafia is notorious for underground operations and clean transactions, and, unlike certain vestiges of the Italian mafia, it is known for its secrecy and unflamboyant manner.