For one thing, to call them "organizations" can be misleading, as they are more criminal enterprises than organized crime. Meaning you have Russian, Eastern European, or Balkan criminals coming together for a given criminal activity and then disbanding, later to regroup with each other or others for another criminal activity. These groups usually don't have the structure the LCN does and are not concerned with taking over huge pieces of territory. Much of the same hype, by both the media and law enforcement, was given to Albanian organized crime over the past decade as was given to Russian organized crime in the 1990's. Neither of these new ethnic groups "took over," as some predicted, but simply carved out a place for themselves. And there have been a number of examples of both working with the LCN in New York. The Russians in things like the gas tax scam, health care fraud, and stock fraud. The Albanians working as enforcers, burglars, etc. for the LCN.

For those who watch this stuff closely, there have been busts involving both Russian (Eurasian) and Albanian OC in recent years. In 2006, 26 people in an Eastern European crime ring were indicted in New York on charges of racketeering, extortion, armed robbery conspiracy, credit card fraud conspiracy, and illegal trafficking of narcotics, firearms, stolen luxury cars, fraudulent identification documents, and other stolen property. In 2008, 23 people from Russia, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans were indicted in Las Vegas on charges of counterfeiting, credit card fraud, and identity theft. In 2009, 26 people from various Balkan countries were indicted in New Jersey for trafficking in drugs, untaxed cigarettes, counterfeit goods, and other contraband. In 2011, 99 people from an Armenian group were indicted in Los Angeles on charges of identity theft, credit card skimming, manufacturing counterfeit checks, kidnapping, extortion, and drug trafficking. These are just some examples.