Russian Mafia

The FBI at the time called them far more lethal and dangerous than Italian Mafia ever were.

that's just bullshit, even today, cosa nostra ai its weakest is stronger than russian mafia in the united states

that's just bullshit, even today, cosa nostra ai its weakest is stronger than russian mafia in the united states

Alleged Russian organized crime boss, believed by European and United States federal law enforcement agencies to be the “boss of bosses” of most Russian Mafia syndicates in the world.
Mogilevich is believed to direct a vast criminal empire and is described by the FBI as “the most dangerous mobster in the world.” He has been accused by the FBI of “weapons trafficking, contract murders, extortion, drug trafficking, and prostitution on an international scale.”

Mogilevich’s nicknames include “Don Semyon” and “The Brainy Don” (because of his business acumen). According to US diplomatic cables, he is said to control RosUkrEnergo, a company actively involved in Russia–Ukraine gas disputes, and a partner of Raiffeisen Bank.
In 1994, the Mogilevich group obtained control over Inkombank, one of the largest private banks in Russia, in a secret deal with bank chairman Vladimir Vinogradov, getting direct access to the world financial system. The bank collapsed in 1998 under suspicions of money laundering. Through Inkombank, in 1996 he obtained a significant share in Sukhoi, a large military aircraft manufacturer.

Mikhail Maratovich Fridman, born 21 April 1964 is a Russian entrepreneur, business executive, and philanthropist. With Russian and Israeli citizenship, in 1988 he co-founded Alfa-Group, a large multi-national conglomerate.

In 1990 he co-founded Alfa-Bank, which is now the largest private bank in Russia.
Fridman currently sits as chairman of the supervisory board of Alfa Group Consortium, and he is also on the boards of Alfa-Bank[ and ABH Holdings, which is the Luxembourg based holding company of Alfa-Banking Group.

Exactly, people like to play up the russian mafia for some reason. Sure they are powerful in their home country, but what mafia isn't? Italians crazy powerful in Italy, mexicans in Mexico, and so on. But when you can survive and thrive in a country with tough law enforcement and not your ancestral homeland, then it's a true showcase of their power. And the Russians or other eastern European crime in the usa can't come close to la Cosa nostra in the usa, and there's no valid proof to prove otherwise.

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.

36 U.S. federal law enforcement entities involved ;n the fight against ROC include, but are not limited to, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Immigration and Naturalization Service; Financial crimes Enforcement Network, Internal Revenue Service; DEA; U S Customs Service; US Secret Service; and FBI. Several of these groups, as well as elements of the foreign affairs and intelligence communities of the U.S. government, also are involved in the provision of training and technical assistance. More information on the training aspect can be obtained through the of Office of Ambassador Richard L Morningstar, Coordinator of U.S. Assistance to the Newly Independent States.

37. "White Paper on Russian/Eurasian Organized Crime."
The Russian Federation as a Criminal-Syndicalist State
The notion of a criminal-syndicalist state is central and essential to understanding the findings and conclusions of the Russian Organized Crime Task Force. The task force concludes that, in the absence of significant reforms, the Russian Federation itself is likely to become a full-blown criminal-syndicalist state. In many respects, such a criminal syndicalist state already exists in Russia today. In the findings of the task force, such a state is composed of, and characterized by, interactions among the following:

In two posh villas outside the small town of Ricany, near Prague, one of the most dreaded mob families in the world savagely murders its terrified victims. The mob’s young enforcers, trained by veterans of the Afghanistan war, are infamous for their extreme brutality.
Their quarry, usually businessmen who have balked at extortion demands, are repeatedly stabbed and tortured, then mutilated before they are butchered. The carnage is so hideous that it has scared the daylights out of competing crime groups in the area.

The torture chambers are run by what international police officials call the Red Mafia, a notorious Russian mob family that in only six years has become a nefarious global crime cartel. Based in Budapest, it has key centers in New York, Pennsylvania, Southern California, and as far away as New Zealand.

The enigmatic leader of the 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.

”He’s the most powerful mobster in the world,” crows Monya Elson, who is listed in classified documents as one of Mogilevich’s closest associates and partners in prostitution and money laundering rings. The Brighton Beach­based Elson, who once led a pack of thugs and killers known as Monya’s Brigada, is currently in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan awaiting trial for three murders and numerous extortions.

In July 1993, after Elson was grievously wounded by rival mobsters in a bloody shoot-out outside his Brooklyn apartment building, Mogilevich spirited him out of the country. Mogilevich then set up his Russian Jewish refugee friend in an alleged massive money-laundering scheme in Fano, Italy, where he was eventually arrested and extradited back to America. Elson, an integral part of the Red Mafia, had been one of the most feared mobsters in Brighton Beach, ground zero for Russian organized crime in America, which has exploded here following perestroika.

”If I tell on Mogilevich, Interpol will give me $20 million,” boasted Elson. ”I lived with him. I’m his partner, don’t forget. We are very, very close friends. I don’t mean close, I mean very, very close. He’s my best friend.” Nevertheless, after extensive interviews over the course of the last six months, Elson ultimately confirmed some of the details about Mogilevich contained in the classified FBI and Israeli documents.

Allegations of Mogilevich’s devilish array of criminal activities are extensively detailed in the reports: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 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.

In one typical criminal deal, Mogilevich and two Moscow-based gangsters sold $20 million worth of pilfered Warsaw Pact weapons from East Germany, including ground-to-air missiles and 12 armored troop carriers, according to the classified Israeli and FBI documents. The buyer was Iran, says a top-level U.S. Customs official who requested anonymity.

In another deal, an FBI informant told the bureau that one of Mogilevich’s chief lieutenants in Los Angeles met two Russians from New York City with Genovese crime family ties to broker a scheme to dump American toxic waste in Russia. Mogilevich’s man from L.A. said the Red Mafia would dispose of the toxic waste in the Chernobyl region, ”probably through payoffs to the decontamination authorities there,” says a classified FBI report.

Mogilevich is particularly intrigued by art fraud. In early 1993, he reached an agreement with the leaders of the powerful Solntsevskaya crime family in Moscow to invest huge sums of money in a joint venture: acquiring a jewelry business in Moscow and Budapest. The business, according to classified FBI documents, was to serve as a front for the acquisition of jewelry, antiques, and art, which the Solntsevskaya mob had stolen from churches and museums in Russia, including the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. The gangsters also robbed the homes of art collectors and even broke into synagogues in Germany and Eastern Europe to steal rare religious books and Torahs.

Mogilevich’s operation, again in collusion with the Solntsevskaya mob, also purchased a large jewelry factory in Budapest. Russian antiques, such as Faberge eggs, are sent to Budapest for ”restoration.” Mogilevich’s men ship the genuine Faberge eggs to an unwitting Sotheby’s auction house in London for sale, then send fake Faberge eggs as well as other ”restored” objects back to Moscow.

Mogilevich’s early years are murky. Soviet authorities first learned of his criminal activities in the 1970s, when he was a member of the Liubertskaya crime group that operated in the Moscow suburb of the same name. He was involved in petty thefts and counterfeiting.

But Mogilevich made his first millions fleecing fellow Jews. In the mid 1980s, when tens of thousands of Jewish refugees were hurriedly immigrating to Israel and America, Mogilevich made deals to buy their assets–rubles, furniture, and art–cheaply, promising to exchange the goods for fair market value and send refugees the proceeds in ”hard” currency. Instead, he sold their valuables and pocketed the considerable profits.

In the 1980s, he established a petroleum import-export company, Arbat International, and registered it in Alderney, one of the Channel Islands, which is known to be a tax haven. One of his partners–with a quarter share of the company–was Vyacheslav Ivankov, the legendary Russian criminal who in March 1992 became Godfather of the Russian mob in America. Ivankov was convicted in 1996 of extorting two Russian-born Wall Street stockbrokers. He now resides in Raybrook, a Federal prison in upstate New York.

In early 1990, Mogilevich fled Moscow, as did many other dons, to avoid the gangland wars that were then roiling the capital. Mogilevich and his top henchmen settled in Israel, where they received Israeli citizenship. He ”succeeded in building a bridgehead in Israel” and ”developing significant and influential [political] ties,” says an Israeli intelligence report.

Mogilevich is married to a Hungarian national, Katalin Papp. That marriage allowed him to legally emigrate to Budapest, Hungary, in 1991, where he began to build the foundations of his global criminal empire. He bought a string of nightclubs in Prague, Riga, and Kiev–called the ”Black and White Clubs”–that has become one of the world’s foremost centers of prostitution. Monya Elson is a partner in the clubs, according to his own admission and classified FBI documents. The Black and White Club in Budapest became the hub of Mogilevich’s operations. He quickly built a highly structured criminal organization, in the mode of a traditional American mafia family. Indeed, many of the organization’s 250 members are his relatives.

To the consternation of international law enforcement officials, Mogilevich began to legally purchase much of Hungary’s arms industry. The legitimate companies he bought include:

Magnex 2000: a giant magnet manufacturer.

Digep General Machine Works: an artillery shell, mortar, and fire equipment manufacturer, which was financed by a $3.8 million loan from the London branch of Banque Francaise De L’orean.

Army Co-op: a mortar and anti-aircraft gun factory. Army Co-op was established in 1991 by two Hungarian nationals, both in the local arms industry, who were looking for a partner. Mogilevich has bought 95 per cent of Army Co-op through another Channel Island holding company, Arigon, Ltd., and also deals extensively with the Ukraine, selling oil products to the Ukrainian railway administration.

These transactions enabled the Mogilevich organization to become a direct owner of the Hungarian armaments industry. In 1994, he purchased a license enabling him to buy and sell weapons. Now a legitimate armaments manufacturer, one of his companies participated in at least one arms exhibition in the U.S., where it displayed mortars modified by Israel.

Like mob bosses everywhere, Mogilevich couldn’t sustain his empire without the help of corrupt police and politicians. There is one documented example of a criminal associate of Mogilevich mingling with American politicians. In March 1994, Vahtang Ubiriya, one of Mogilevich’s top lieutenants, was photographed by the FBI at a tony Republican Party fundraiser in Dallas, says an FBI report. Ubiriya, a high-ranking official in the Ukrainian railway administration, has a prior conviction for bribery in the Ukraine.

In Europe and Russia, the ”corruption of police and public officials has been part of the Semion Mogilevich Organization’s modus operandi,” says a classified FBI document. ”The corruptive influence of the Mogilevich organization apparently extends to the Russian security system. During 1995, two colonels from Department of the Russian Presidential Security Service . . . traveled to Hungary under commercial cover to meet with Mogilevich . . . seeking information for use in the Russian political campaign.” An Israeli associate of Mogilevich met with the two colonels and provided intelligence. Mogilevich also paid off a Russian judge to secure Vyacheslav Ivankov’s early release from a Siberian prison, where he was doing hard time for robbery and torture, according to U.S. court records and classified FBI documents.

On April 28, the German national television network ZDF reported that the BND (the German intelligence agency) had entered into a secret contract with Mogilevich to provide information on the Russian mob. The charges were made by several sources, including Pierre Delilez, a highly regarded Belgium police investigator who specializes in Russian Organized Crime. Because of this deal with the BND, police in Belgium, Germany, and Austria have complained that it is now impossible to investigate the ”Brainy Don.” If the television report is accurate, one possible motive for BND’s deal, says a U.S. law enforcement expert on the Russian mob, is that the Germans recently ”pulled their people out of Moscow because they didn’t like the level of cooperation they were getting from the Russian authorities on the Russian mob.” Gangsters, said this source, often talk to intelligence agencies about their rivals.

Mogilevich’s main activity in the U.S. appears to be money laundering, says a classified FBI report. He has set up companies in Los Angeles–FNJ Trade Management–and Newton, Pennsylvania–YBM Magnex International–as well as dozens of shell companies, which have received more than $30 million from Arigon, Ltd., the center of Mogilevich’s financial operations.

Last Friday, U.S. Attorney Robert Courtney, head of the organized-crime strike force, led a a joint FBI, IRS, INS, and Customs raid of YBM’s offices in Newton. Cartons of documents were seized, with Canadian and U.S. police citing the company’s alleged ties to Russian organized crime. YBM is publicly traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and two days before Friday’s raid, trading in its stock was suspended by Canadian authorities.

The president and CEO of YBM is Jacob Bogatin, a professor of physical metallurgy. In May 1996, he contacted the FBI in Philadelphia to find out why the INS had denied visas to YBM employees arriving from Hungary and the Ukraine. When he was rebuffed, he had intermediaries step forward and pester the FBI. The State Department has banned Mogilevich himself from obtaining a U.S. visa because he’s on the department’s watch list of international organized-crime figures. Nevertheless, he has surreptitiously entered America under aliases and on visitor visas issued in Tel Aviv to visit Elson and Ivankov.

Bogatin admitted during a telephone interview that Mogilevich owns his company. When asked if he knew that numerous law enforcement agencies here and abroad considered Mogilevich to be a leader of one of the most ruthless organized-crime families in recent times, Bogatin replied, ”We have an investors relations guy. You want to talk with him about this stuff.” He added that he had read allegations in the Eastern European press that his boss was a Mafia don, but didn’t believe them. YBM vehemently denies that it is connected to Russian organized crime or has engaged in any criminal activities.

Bogatin is no stranger to the mob, however. His brother, David, a top Russian crime figure who once served in North Vietnam for the Soviets in an anti-aircraft unit, is now serving an eight-year term in a New York State prison for a multimillion-dollar gasoline tax fraud scheme. Just prior to trial, he had jumped bail, fleeing to Poland. There he set up the first commercial banks, which moved vast sums of money controlled by Russian wiseguys. (This after handing over his mortgages for five pricey Trump Tower apartments to a Genovese associate. The mortgages were liquidated and the funds were moved through a mafia-controlled bank in Chelsea.) Eventually he was caught and returned to the U.S. In the meantime, he lived like royalty in a five-star Viennese hotel, surrounded by a praetorian guard of 125 Polish parachutists, some of them bedecked in shiny gold uniforms.

Mogilevich has not refrained from associating with known killers in America, prime among them Elson and Ivankov. A confidential informant told the FBI that Vladimir Berkovich, an L.A. resident, is a chief lieutenant in Mogilevich’s organization and has arranged contract killings here, supplying the weapons and spiriting the killers out of the country. The visas, says the report, were obtained through the Palm Terrace restaurant, a watering hole for Russian gangsters, which Berkovich owns. Berkovich told the Voice that he is aware of the government’s charges, and that they are ”total bullshit.” Although he has no criminal record in the U.S., Berkovich’s son, Oleg, was convicted in Los Angeles of solicitation to commit murder on October 11, 1989. He was sentenced to four years. Oleg’s business card identified his employer as Magnex, Ltd., a company owned by Mogilevich in Budapest. Oleg was recently arrested in Hungary on unspecified charges but was released.

Oleg’s uncle, the colorful Lazar Berkovich, whose last known address was New York City, arrived in the Big Apple after having survived a shootout with Italian gangsters, says his brother Vladimir. The FBI report claims that Lazar was head of Russian criminal activities in Italy prior to his coming to America to recuperate from his wounds, though Vladimir Bercovich denies that Lazar was ever connected to the Russian mob.

Israeli and U.S. law enforcement sources agree that the Red Mafia, though in existence for a mere six years, has become one of the most formidable Russian organized-crime families in the world. Strongest in the Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and the U.S., Mogilevich has increased his strength by forging ties with other powerful Russian mob groups as well as with the Italian Camorra. His reported ties to the German BND and ex­police officers in Hungary keep him informed of police efforts to penetrate his organization. ”He also ingratiates himself with the police by providing information on other [Russian crime] groups’ activities, thus appearing to be a cooperative good citizen,” says a classfied FBI report. This, along with his strong leadership qualities, his acute financial skills, his talented and highly educated associates, and his use of cutting-edge technology, has so far made the ”Brainy Don” impervious to prosecution.

that's article is a total joke 60 russian mafia groups in italy? lol
russian mafia didn't exist in italy

that's article is a total joke 60 russian mafia groups in italy? lol
russian mafia didn't exist in italy

So your saying a few drunken goons and panzies over in Brighton Beach, running some white collar scams and extorting their own people has more influence than Cosa nostra? The five families still dominate organized crime in New York city, America's largest and arguably most important city in terms of business, money and popularity. They still have their hands in everything. If the Russians were so powerful, how come you barely hear them get arrested in the usa? And don't give me the bs about how their so secretive. If they were so important, the damn feds would atleast bust a few of them every year. But they don't because they are just popular in movies and because of people like you who have something against Italians. Meanwhile there is plenty of Cosa nostra news in the usa every year. Like it was said before, nobody gives a shit about what happens in Russia, that shithole is corrupt as hell. Now if they got that kind of power here, it would be impressive, but they don't.

Since then, the Russian Mafia has been linked to stock manipulation, gas excise tax scams, health care fraud and cybercrime—criminal enterprises where they are pioneers, not just perpetrators. The worldwide reach of the Russian mob was demonstrated by Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. "Tarzan." according to Friedman, the nightclub owner arranged the sale of a Russian submarine, complete with a captain and crew, to Colombian drug runner.

Since he took over the reins of Seagram's New York branch in the 19505.
Sam lI's father. Edgar, has built the Seagram distilleries network into a multinational global empire. The Bronfmans, for example. have entered into a most profitable business partnership with the Cuban rum Bacardi family. After Fidel Castro took over the island in 1959, the Bacardis switched their base of operations to Puerto Rico and Miami, taking along with them a small army of anti-Castro Cuban exiles.

The Bacardis. headed by Manuel Cutilla Bacardi. have been pin­pointed by law enforcement agencies as the funders and politica lcontrollers of entire networks of Cuban exiles. The"gusanos," as they are called. are not only involved in terrorism <Orlando Bosch's September 1976 bombing of a Cubana airlines plane killed over 70 people). Drug runners in the Bacardi-Cuban exile networks. Jose Medardo Alvero-Cruz and Antonio Cruz Vasquez. have been recently arrested for drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Mexico. (23) Seagram has also staked a conglomerate empire in Mexico.

Bronfman's contact is former Mexican President Miguel Aleman. who owns and operates Acapulco.
Today Aleman is demanding the revival of casino gambling in Mexico;
in the 1930s nationalist President Lazaro Cardenas threw the casinos, and with them Meyer Lansky, out of the country. In short, wherever Seagram branches appear on the map,they are thoroughly intermeshed with narcotics runners. gambling, and crime.

On the public record, the Bronfmans' gutter connections are most visible in the case of Mitchell Bronfman.
The son of Knight of Justice Allan Bronfman. Mitchell is reportedly never without his semi automatic strapped to his shoulder and his stiletto strapped to his left calf. He is on record with the Montreal Police, the Quebec Provincial Justice Ministry. and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as A Kingpin of organized crime in Montreal. (24)

Lyndon LaRouche is a convicted fraudster and virulent anti-Semite. Hardly what would be considered a good source.

Bullchit
YOU only say that because YOU are Anti Gentile, Anti Christian and Anti Goy.

Lyndon LaRouche is a convicted fraudster and virulent anti-Semite. Hardly what would be considered a good source.

I had totally forgotten about LaRouche, so at least I got a good laugh outta this. He was big in the 70s and 80s. Damn, I'm getting old

I cited the Montreal Crime Commission.
Still laughing, pink panties?

I had totally forgotten about LaRouche, so at least I got a good laugh outta this. He was big in the 70s and 80s. Damn, I'm getting old

You just gave away your age . ...LOL

LaRouche
286

A 1972 report by the Montreal Crime Commission names one Willie Obront as the head of the syndicate in the area and
describes the relationship between Obront and Mitchell Bronf­man as "almost a brotherly relationship." (25) \This relationship extends into illegal activities in which they have mutually or jointly indulged ...the special kinds of favors they did for each other and the resulting advantages of each in the fields of loan sharking, gambling, illegal betting, securities, tax evasion and cor­ruption. (26)

They're actually black. Thats what the Elders of Zion have ordered me to wear in the Protocols, and i always follow their directions. Shalom!

Hive doesnt like truth about Jewish crime families? Oy gevalt. The whole family are criminals. Period.
I pulled this off of a great site. All sources are cited. Owner a former Master Librarian.

http://jewwatch.com/jew-leaders-bronfman.html

I think you researched the Bronfman case to the limit. You should move to the next stage and find out where Jimmy Hoffa is buried.
Get back to me when your done.

In 1924 Hoffa’s family moved to the biggest boomtown of them all-Detroit. The city that the struggling Hoffa family arrived in was both a land of opportunity, and of danger. It had the highest murder rate of any city in the North and the Jewish Purple gang was responsible for smuggling a substantial portion of America’s bootleg whiskey into the country over the Detroit River. The burgeoning Motor City was a volatile cauldron of European immigrants, white hillbillies, and Blacks from the American south; it made for a deadly mix. Between January 1925 and June of 1926 the Detroit Police killed 25 African-Americans; the Purple Gang was responsible for 500 murders; and a secret society called the Black Legion operated in the police department and factory halls to maintain Protestant supremacy in the fast growing city. Then the Great Depression hit.

Jew watch?

Seriously? You're either a troll or a wannabe Nazi. Either way, you're of absolutely no value.

Blow me, Nazi.

The Italians are now resigned to corner street dealing and hijacking. Small time stuff.
Russians are engaged in the more profitable crime rackets....

In my opinion the most powerful mafia in the world.

it's among the most powerful, but italian mafia and mexican cartles seem to be currently more powerful

Powerful businessmen, notorious criminals and high-level officials in the government it is all intertwined.

yes, but usually under a dictatorship (and putin is a dictator) the mafia is weaker, not stronger
putin uses gangsters or ex kgb members to do some dirty work and he gets ride of them after

http://abcnews.go.com/International...-cocaine-seized-russian-embassy-53279456

Argentina: Drug seizure at Russian embassy leads to arrests

https://themoscowtimes.com/articles...nd-russian-organized-crime-opinion-61271

The Tragedy of the Age-Old Kremlin-Vor Alliance (Op-ed)

http://www.mzk1.ru/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/0126.jpg

Sergey "Mihas" Mihailov, Mike Tyson and Viktor "Avera Starshiy" Averin. The two Russians are both Solncevskaya leaders.

Mikhailov has very good contacts with the Georgian Vor v Zakone.

Term "Lawyer" What is it? I was reading Russian articles and forums, I saw it every minute.

https://en.crimerussia.com/organize...ingiseppskie-gang-leader-and-four-busin/

Death sentence upheld. ‘Russian mafiosi’ to pay for murders of Kingiseppskie gang leader and four businessmen in USA

https://en.crimerussia.com/organize...ed-of-having-ties-to-solntsevskaya-gang/

General Shamanov and Lokomotiv coach Syomin suspected of having ties to Solntsevskaya gang

142 arrested in police operation against Armenian mafia
Raids in Catalan and Spanish towns related to such alleged offenses as drug and arms trafficking, tobacco smuggling and money laundering

http://www.catalannews.com/society-...-police-operation-against-armenian-mafia

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Wo...r-for-alleged-links-to-mafia-bosses.ashx

Russia detains powerful investigator for alleged links to mafia bosses

That is ironic, as Drymanov was investigating Putin's connections to the Vory Vor around 2014 to 2016. Or it could be someone flexing their muscle and power.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ssin-party-celebrate-release-prison.html

Russian mafia godfather is gunned down by a hooded assassin at a party to celebrate his release from prison in shocking CCTV

On 27 September, Dr Mark Galeotti gave a lecture at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, in their Wiseguy series. The talk was based on his book The Vory.

https://livestream.com/accounts/6847704/events/8333474/videos/180845397

razhden shulaya can not be found in the detainees of the Federal Bureau Prison is he detained on another name?

Thank you ThePolakVet for your answer.
Do you know in the arrested members with Razhen Shulaya which members have collaborated with the FBI I already know that there is Zurab Dzhanashvilli but are there others?

Thanks for the updates, Ciment.

What’s the status of the Russian mafia in USA? What are they into, who’s in charge and is Brooklyn the main area they operate?

Can anyone recommend any books about the Russian Mafia worth reading? Thanks

Last info that I've got was that in New York mainly operated brigades with ties to Solntsevskaya and Izmailovskaya, this was from a guy who did time in US who I know personally. Then of course the latest are the Georgians from Razhden Shulayawhich were brought down. Shulaya got 45 years if I remember right. Then there was another brigade which leader is Aleksei Tsvetkov, but he is prison as well now.
They're into everything that they can earn from. Very rarely, you will come across groups which are into only one thing. And these groups probably will be either car jackers or credit card fraudsters in most cases.
I doubt there is one person in charge. Mostly the groups which are under Thieves in Law, will answer to them, but there's not one main leader in this group.
I would say they operate in a lot of areas. Brooklyn might be as the main area in the 70's till 90's. But there's lots of other groups in other states in US, like Florida, California, New Jersey, etc.

They have a presence in the US, but they make more money in Western Europe. Mogilevich still appears on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list.

Don't know if anybody ever saw the little table on the link below. It shows the background of the Vors in the "Russian" underworld. It also features a link to a Vor database. Don't know how much of it is accurate nowadays though;

http://www.unz.com/akarlin/how-russian-is-the-russian-mafia/

The biggest Vor suppliers seem to be:

Georgians: a whopping 242 vors
Russians: 53 vors
Armenians: 30 vors
Yezidis (mostly from Georgia and Armenia): 26 vors - which is disproportionate seeing their community only numbers about 150000 in the former USSR
Azerbaijanis: 16 vors
Chechens: 9 vors
Abkhazians (though most of those seem to be of ethnic Georgian origin as well): 9 vors
Jews (often from Ukraine): 7 vors

http://www.primecrime.ru/ is actually a better source for Vor database, they have list of current and old Vory and also known events between them, making timelines, etc.. Sadly, it's only in Russian, but you can use the browser translator option is you use Chrome.

Was Maksim Kuzminov killed on Kremlin's orders? Spanish cops probe theory Russian mafia and Moscow spy played role in Benidorm assassination of helicopter pilot who defected to Ukraine

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13105525/Maksim-Kuzminov-killed-Russia-mafia-spy-Spain.html