Russian Mafia News

Moscow’s Criminal Groups Playing by New and More Dangerous Rules

2009-09-22T08:32:00.000-07:00

Like Don Carleone at the end of the Godfather films, organized crime criminal groups in the Moscow increasingly are moving into legitimate businesses and government even while retaining ties with their criminal base. But because there is no single authority, the groups are increasingly fighting among themselves, according to Russian officials.

The Russian media over the last few days have been focusing on the state of organized crime in the wake of the assassination attempt against one of the most powerful criminal clan bosses, Vyacheslav Ivankov, knowsn as “the Japanese,” who now lies near death in a Moscow hospital.

Read full article here: http://www.newcriminologist.com/article.asp?nid=2166

We've 'nothing to fear' from Russian mafia

2009-03-04T08:26:00.000-08:00

THE Russian Deputy Prime Minister yesterday assured Irish businesses that they have nothing to fear from the Russian mafia.

Dmitri Kozak, visiting yesterday as part of the biggest Russian trade mission in a decade, said the Russian government had done a lot to tackle the problem.

"Russian companies and foreign companies operating in Russia face the same amount of criminality as in any other country. So the problem I believe from the government's side has been tackled," he said.

Read full article here: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/weve-nothing-to-fear-from-russian-mafia-1660291.html

Ganglords 'targeting debt-ridden developers'

2009-02-16T08:29:00.000-08:00

THE Government was urged yesterday to strengthen the law to prevent "Irish criminals and the Russian mafia" entering the debt collection business.

The demand from Fine Gael came amid controversy over several convicted criminals, including Martin 'The Viper' Foley, who have entered the debt collection business.

But the Government says the Garda has adequate powers and resources to deal with any criminal activity.

Irish criminals and the Russian mafia are targeting debt-ridden developers, according to Fine Gael justice spokesman Charlie Flanagan.

Read full article: http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ganglords-targeting-debtridden-developers-1641110.html

Berlin is the centre of the Russian mafia in Europe

2009-02-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

It’s called Russian Mafia. But the organized crime with culprits with origins from the former Soviet Union has nothing in common with the Italian Cosa Nostra. In the European continent Berlin is regarded to be the centre of that criminal organization. The police of Berlin investigates discreetly, with tact and sensitivity.

The police regards the German capital – beside London and NewYork – as the centre of the Russian organized crime in Western Europe. For the first time the Regional Criminal Investigation Department published in which dimension we have to imagine this criminal organization: “In 2007 we could spot ten groups from states of the former Soviet Union with altogether 95 suspects and last year we established 14 of those groups with 167 suspects”, says Bernd Finger, leading chief-inspector from the section of organized crime.

Read full article here: http://flarenetwork.org/blog/2009/02/03/berlin-is-the-centre-of-the-russian-mafia-in-europe/

Berlin a Russian mafia hub

2008-11-26T08:36:00.000-08:00

BERLIN, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Berlin has become a European hub for the Russian mafia, according to security experts in the German capital.

If you own a BMW X5 or a Porsche Cayenne, you shouldn't park it in the streets of Berlin too often, because these fancy SUVs top the list from which the Russian mafia is "shopping" in Germany's capital. The criminals cruise the rich neighborhoods until they find their car of choice, then open, short-circuit and load it onto a truck -- in less than two minutes. Chances are the owners won't see their cars again.

"Such vehicles are brought into nearby body shops … where they are tuned or taken apart completely," Bernd Finger, the head of the Berlin Criminal Office, said earlier this month in an interview with the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper. "From there they are taken to intermediate traders in Lithuania, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovenia. And from there they are taken into the buyer's country, most often Russia or Asia."

Read full article here: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2008/11/26/Berlin-a-Russian-mafia-hub/UPI-11891227727020/

Has the Russian Mafia Stolen Over 500,000 Bank and Credit Card Accounts?

2008-11-06T08:40:00.000-08:00

Researchers at RSA's FraudAction Research Lab discovered one of the largest stolen data caches ever. Over the last 30 months a trojan virus, known as Sinowal, Torpig and Mebroot by various anti-virus companies, has stolen 270,000 online banking account credentials and 240,000 credit and debit account numbers. The virus is so sophisticated that it changes constantly to avoid detection by anti-virus programs, in fact, a test of the most recent virus showed that only 10 out of 35 security applications were able to detect it.

Read full article here: http://www.thechicagosyndicate.com/2008/11/has-russian-mafia-stolen-over-500000.html

Russian Mafia may benefit from bad economy

2008-10-16T08:39:00.000-07:00

The federal economic stimulus plan might have unintended benefits for organized crime.

At least that's the assessment of experts who monitor groups like the Russian Mafia in Los Angeles County.

"They take advantage," said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Larry Hastings. "The more money that's out there; if there's some type of scam they can get into, they'll go after it. If there's an angle they'll work it."

Hastings heads a squad specifically tasked with taking on organized crime. In recent years the men and women who work for him report a surge in Russian gangsters throughout the region.

Read full article here: http://www.insidesocal.com/sgvcrime/2008/10/russian-mafia-may-benefit-from.html

Russian mafia take over as world's top crime gang

2008-09-17T08:39:00.000-07:00

THEY trade in everything from stolen art to nuclear technology and leave rivals riddled with bullets in the streets of Moscow.

Now the worst thugs in the Russian Mafia have blasted their way to the top of the global organised crime league.

Moscow's Solntsevskaya Bratva, known as the Brotherhood, have just been named the worst criminal gang in the world in a major survey.

Read full article here: http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/editors-choice/2008/09/17/russian-mafia-take-over-as-world-s-top-crime-gang-86908-20739796/

Russian Mafia Leads Among Top 10 Criminal Organizations

2008-09-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Askmen.com has named the Russian mafia as the leading criminal organization in the world followed by the Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate, the biggest of Japan's Yakuza crime clans.

Ian Brandes of the Daily Record points out that the Russian mafia is involved in everything from stolen art to nuclear technology and that they often "leave rivals riddled with bullets in the streets of Moscow."

Moscow's Solntsevskaya Bratva, known as the Brotherhood, have just been named the worst criminal gang in the world in a major survey.

Read full article here: http://www.gambling911.com/gambling-news/russian-mafia-leads-among-top-10-criminal-organizations-091708.html

In a River Raid, a Glimpse of Russia’s Criminal Elite

2008-07-30T08:34:00.000-07:00

MOSCOW — It is unclear why they gathered. A police statement said it was to discuss “escalating problems of the criminal world.” Some insiders spoke of a conflict between Moscow crime bosses and of a looming underworld war reminiscent of the bloody battles of a decade ago.

Whatever the reason, when leaders of Russia’s criminal elite convened on a yacht in the Moscow River recently, the police moved swiftly to stop the meeting.

Read full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/30/world/europe/30russia.html?scp=324&sq=russian%20mafia&st=cse

Gangsters Without Borders

2008-05-25T08:35:00.000-07:00

Around the time the Soviet Union ceased to exist, I was waiting in the entry queue at Fiumicino Airport in Rome when I noticed a party of several dozen young Russian girls being fast-tracked past a freshly opened control window. By young I mean perhaps 15, and by Russian girls I mean beautiful adolescents with pale gold hair, perfect skin and the figures of child ballerinas. These wide-eyed coltish kids weren’t dancers or on a school trip. They were hustled along by a stocky middle-aged man with a short mustache and a stash of passports in his hairy hand. It was an unforgettable image of lambs to the slaughter — or, more precisely, of children to the brothel. You sometimes glimpse them, older now, dispersed around the world, and how they were engulfed by the criminal universe is one of the things Misha Glenny describes in “McMafia,” his dizzy tour of the forms of global crime born in the late ’80s, when finance capital shook off restraints and the Soviet Union collapsed.

Read full article here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/books/review/Robb-t.html?scp=574&sq=russian%20mafia&st=cse

Undercover Look Inside The Russian Mob

2008-05-13T08:41:00.000-07:00

They were known as Z and Louie, Thick and Thin. Partially disguised, they talked for first time to CBS News about their nearly 10 years as undercover agents for the FBI.

"What were kind of roles you guys played here?" Keteyian asked.

"Well, we portrayed ourselves as not only high rollers but wise guys from Atlantic City," Z said.

They had big-time U.S. Customs connections, and a bankroll to match.

"The $2,000 dinners. The fancy cars. And, yes, I did fit in them," Z laughed.

Read ful article here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/05/13/cbsnews_investigates/main4094344.shtml?source=search_story

FBI agents search for Russian mafia in Moscow

2008-04-23T08:30:00.000-07:00

FBI agents have arrived in Moscow looking for Russian mafia members, who committed crimes on US territory, Russian website Lenta.ru reports. The FBI agents will start their work in close collaboration with Russian police on April 23.

According to the reports, the FBI agents are particularly interested in four Russian criminals. Americans have asked the Russian police to locate a quartet of Russian mafia bosses: Evgeni Dvoskin, Konstantin Ginzburg, Victor Vulf and Alexander Gribov.

Evgeni Dvoskin was born in the Ukrainian city Odessa but had been living in the USA since 1990. A Spokesman for the FBI said that Dvoskin had served a prison sentence in the same jail as the infamous Russian criminal Vyacheslav “Yaponchik” Ivankov. After their release they organized several financial schemes and illegally bought shares of four big US companies. Dvoskin was detained 15 times during 10 years of living in the USA.

Read full article: http://www.mosnews.com/world/2009/04/23/1266/