RUSSIAN MAFIA

The Russian Mafia (Russian: o , translit. rossiyskaya mafiya,

[2]

Russian: , translit. russkaya mafiya), sometimes referred to

as Bratva (Russian: : "brothers"/"brotherhood"), is a collective of

various organized crime elements originating in the former Soviet Union.
Although not a singular criminal organization, most of the individual groups share
similar goals and organizational structures[citation needed] that define them as part of the
loose overall association.
Organized crime in Russia began in the imperial period of the Tsars, but it was
not until the Soviet era that vory v zakone ("thieves-in-law") emerged as leaders
of prison groups in gulags (Soviet prison labor camps), and their honor
code became more defined. AfterWorld War II, the death of Joseph Stalin, and
the fall of the Soviet Union, more gangs emerged in a flourishing black market,
exploiting the unstable governments of the former Republics, and at its highest
point, even controlling as much as two-thirds of the Russian economy.[citation
needed]

Louis Freeh, former director of the FBI, said that the Russian mafia posed

the greatest threat to U.S. national security in the mid-1990s.[3]

In modern times, there are as many as 6,000 different groups,[4] with more than
200 of them having a global reach. Criminals of these various groups are either
former prison members[clarification needed], corrupt officials and business leaders, people
with ethnic ties, or people from the same region with shared criminal experiences
and leaders[clarification needed].[5] However, the existence of such groups has been
debated[clarification needed]. In December 2009, Timur Lakhonin, the head of the Russian
National Central Bureau ofInterpol, stated "Certainly, there is crime involving our
former compatriots abroad, but there is no data suggesting that an organized
structure of criminal groups comprising former Russians exists abroad",[6] while in
August 2010, Alain Bauer, a French criminologist, said that it "is one of the best
structured criminal organizations in Europe, with a quasi-military operation."[7]

Origins[edit]
The Russian mafia can be traced back to Russia's imperial period, which began
in the 1700s, in the form of banditry and thievery. Most of the population
were peasants in poverty at the time, and criminals who stole from government
entities and divided profits among the people earned Robin Hood-like status,
being viewed as protectors of the poor and becoming folk heroes. In time,
the Vorovskoy Mir (Thieves' World) emerged as these criminals grouped and
started their own code of conduct that was based on strict loyalty with one
another and opposition against the government. When the Bolshevik
Revolution came around in 1917, the Thieves' World was alive and
active. Vladimir Lenin attempted to wipe them out after being robbed by a gang
of highwaymen (who also performed an attempted rape), but failed[clarification needed], and
the criminals survived into Joseph Stalin's reign.[8]

19171991: Soviet era[edit]

During Stalin's reign as ruler, millions of criminals were sent to gulags (Soviet
labor camps), where powerful criminals worked their way up to become vory v
zakone ("thieves-in-law"). These criminal elite often conveyed their status
through complicated tattoos, symbols still used by Russian mobsters.[8]
After Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, Stalin was
desperate for more men to fight for the nation, offering prisoners freedom if they
joined the army. Many flocked to help out in the war, but this act betrayed codes
of the Thieves' World that one must not ally with the government. When the war
was over, however, Stalin sent them back to prison.[citation needed] Those who refused
to fight in the war referred to the traitors as cyka ("bitch"), and the latter landed at
the bottom of the "hierarchy". Outcast, the sukiseparated from the others and
formed their own groups and power bases by collaborating with prison officials,
eventually gaining the luxury of comfortable positions. Bitterness between the
groups erupted into a series of Bitch Wars from 1945 to 1953 with many killed

every day. The prison officials encouraged the violence, seeing it as a way to rid
the prisons of criminals.[5][8]
After the death of Stalin, around eight million inmates were released from gulags.
Those that survived the imprisonment and Bitch Wars became a new breed of
criminal, no longer bound to the laws of the old Thieves' World. They adopted an
"every-man-for-himself" attitude that meant cooperating with the government if
necessary. As corruption spread throughout the Soviet government, the criminal
underworld began to flourish.[citation needed] This corruption was common during
the Brezhnev era, and the nomenklatura(the power elite of the country, usually
corrupt officials) ran the country along with criminal bosses.[citation needed] In the 1970s,
small illegal businesses sprang up throughout the country, with the government
ignoring them, and the black market thrived.[citation needed] Then, in the 1980s, Mikhail
Gorbachev loosened up restrictions on private businesses, allowing them to grow
legally, but by then, the Soviet Union was already beginning to collapse.[5][8]
Also during the 1970s and 1980s, the United States expanded its immigration
policies, allowing Soviet Jews, with most settling in a southern Brooklyn area
known as Brighton Beach (sometimes nicknamed as "Little Odessa"). Here is
where Russian organized crime began in the US.[5][9] The earliest known case of
Russian crime in the area was in the mid-1970s by the "Potato Bag Gang," a
group of con artists disguised as merchants that told customers that they were
selling antique gold rubles for cheap, but in fact, gave them bags of potatoes
when bought in thousands. By 1983, the head of Russian organized crime in
Brighton Beach was Evsei Agron.[10]
Pauol Mirzoyan was a prime target among other mobsters including rival Boris
Goldberg and his organization,[11] and in May 1985 Agron was assassinated. Boris
"Biba" Nayfeld, his bodyguard, moved on to employ under Marat Balagula, who
was believed to have succeeded Agron's authority. In the following year, Balagula
fled the country after he was convicted in a fraud scheme of Merrill

Lynch customers, and was found in Frankfurt, West Germany in 1989, where he
was extradited back to the US and sentenced to eight years in prison.[10]
Balagula would later be convicted on a separate $360,000 credit card fraud in
1992.[12] Nayfield took Balagula's place, partnering with the "Polish Al Capone",
Ricardo Fanchiniin, in an import-export business and setting up a heroin
business.[13] In 1990, his former friend, Monya Elson, back from a six-year prison
sentence in Israel, returned to America and set up a rival heroin business,
culminating in a Mafia turf war.[14]

19922000: Growth and internationalization[edit]

When the USSR collapsed and a free market economy emerged, organized
criminal groups began to take over Russia's economy, with many exKGB soldiers and veterans of theAfghan war offering their skills to the crime
bosses.[3] Gangster summit meetings had taken place in hotels and restaurants
shortly before the Soviet's dissolution, so that top vory v zakone could agree on
who would rule what, and set plans on how to take over the post-Communist
state. It was agreed upon that Vyacheslav "Yaponchik" Ivankov would be sent to
Brighton Beach in 1992, allegedly because he was killing too many people in
Russia and also to take control of Russian organized crime in North America.
[9]

Within a year, he built an international operation that included, but was not

limited to, narcotics, money laundering, and prostitution and made ties with
the American Mafia and Colombian drug cartels, eventually extending
to Miami, Los Angeles, and Boston.[8] Those who went against him were usually
killed.
Prior to Ivankov's arrival, Balagula's downfall left a void for America's next vory v
zakone. Monya Elson, leader of Monya's Brigada (a gang that similarly operated
from Russia to Los Angeles to New York), was in a feud with Boris Nayfeld, with
bodies dropping on both sides.[14] Ivankov's arrival virtually ended the feud,
although Elson would later challenge his power as well, and a number of

attempts were made to end the former's life.[15] Nayfield and Elson would
eventually be arrested in January 1994 (released in 1998)[16] and in Italy in 1995,
respectively.[17]
Ivankov's reign, too, ended in June 1995 when a $3.5 million extortion attempt on
two Russian businessmen, Alexander Volkov and Vladimir Voloshin, ended in an
FBI arrest that resulted in a ten-year maximum security prison sentence.[5]
[8]

Before his arrest and besides his operations in America, Ivankov regularly flew

around Europe and Asia to maintain ties with his fellow mobsters (like members
of the Solntsevskaya Bratva), as well as reinforce ties with others. This did not
stop other people from denying him growing power. In one instance, Ivankov
attempted to buy out Georgian boss Valeri "Globus" Glugech's drug importation
business. When the latter refused the offer, he and his top associates were shot
dead. A summit held in May 1994 in Vienna rewarded him with what was left of
Glugech's business. Two months later, Ivankov got into another altercation with
drug kingpin and head of the Orekhovskaya gang, Segei "Sylvester" Timofeyev,
ending with the latter murdered a month later.[18]
Back in Eastern Europe in May 1995, crime boss Semion Mogilevich held a
different summit meeting of Russian mafia bosses in his U Holubu restaurant
in Andl, a neighborhood of Prague. The excuse to bring them together was that
it was a birthday party for Victor Averin, the second-in-command of
the Solntsevskaya Bratva. However, Major Tomas Machacek of the Czech police
got wind of an anonymous tip-off that claimed that the Solntsevskaya were
planning to assassinate Mogilevich at the location (it was rumored that
Mogilevich and Solntsevskaya leader Sergei Mikhailov had a dispute over $5
million), and the police successfully raided the meeting. 200 guests were
arrested, but no charges were put against them; only key Russian mafia
members were banned from the country, most of whom moved to Hungary.[19]

One person that wasn't there, though, was Mogilevich himself. He claimed that
"[b]y the time I arrived at U Holubu, everything was already in full swing, so I
went into a neighboring hotel and sat in the bar there until about five or six in the
morning."[20][21] Mikhailov would later be arrested in Switzerland in October 1996 on
numerous charges,[15]including that he was the head of a powerful Russian mafia
group, but was exonerated and released two years later after evidence was not
enough to prove much.[22][23]
The worldwide extent of Russian organized crime wasn't realized until Ludwig
"Tarzan" Fainberg was arrested in January 1997, primarily because of global
arms dealing. In 1990, Fainberg moved from Brighton Beach to Miami and
opened up a strip club called Porky's, which soon became a popular hangout for
underworld criminals. Fainberg himself gained a reputation as
an ambassador among international crime groups, becoming especially close to
Juan Almeida, a Colombian cocaine dealer. Planning to expand his cocaine
business, Fainberg acted as an intermediary between Almeida and the
corrupt Russian military. He helped him get six Russian military helicopters in
1993, and in the following year, helped arrange to buy a submarine for cocaine
smuggling. Unfortunately for the two of them, federal agents had been keeping a
close eye on Fainberg for months. Alexander Yasevich, an associate of the
Russian military contact and an undercover DEA agent, was sent to verify the
illegal dealing, and in 1997, Fainberg was finally arrested in Miami. Facing the
possibility of life imprisonment, the latter agreed for his testimony against
Almeida in exchange for a shorter sentence, which ended up being 33 months.[8][9]

2001present[edit]
As the 21st century dawned, the Russian mafia remained alive and well.[24] New
Mafia bosses sprung up, while imprisoned ones were released. Among the
released were Johanithan Pochival Slokavich[who?], Marat Balagula
and Vyacheslav Ivankov, all three in 2004.[25][26] The latter was extradited to
Russia, but was jailed once more for his alleged murders of two Turks in a

Moscow restaurant in 1992; he was cleared of all charges and released in 2005.
Four years later, he was assassinated by a shot in the stomach from a sniper.
[26]

Meanwhile, Monya Elson and Leonid Roytman were arrested in March 2006

for an unsuccessful murder plot against two Kiev-based businessmen.[27]

In 2009, FBI agents in Moscow targeted[clarification needed] two suspected Mafia leaders
and two other corrupt businessmen. One of the leaders is Yevgeny Dvoskin, a
criminal who had been in prison with Ivankov in 1995 and was deported in 2001
for breaking immigration regulations; the other is Konstantin "Gizya" Ginzburg,
who is reportedly the current "big boss" of Russian organized crime in America, it
being suspected that Ivankov handed over control to him.[28][29] Some sources
state that Sheaib was present in Eastern Europe right before the death
of Vyacheslav Ivankov as well as Aslan Usoyan.[24]
In the same year, Semion Mogilevich was placed on the FBI Ten Most Wanted
Fugitives list for his involvement in a complex multimillion-dollar scheme that
defrauded investors in the stock of his company YBM Magnex International,
swindling them out of $150 million.[30] He was indicted in 2003 and arrested in
2008 in Russia on tax fraud charges, but because the US does not have an
extradition treaty with Russia, he was released on bail.[31] Monya Elson said that
he's the most powerful mobster in the world in 1998.[32]
Around the world, Russian mafia groups have popped up as dominating
particular areas: Alec Simchuk and his group ripped off and robbed unsuspecting
tourists and businessmen in South Florida, leading to Rick Brodsky of the FBI to
say that "Eurasian organised crime is our no. 1 priority";[33] Russian organized
crime has a rather large stronghold in the city of Atlanta where members are
distinguished by their tattoos. Russian organized crime was reported to have a
stronger grip in the French Riviera region andSpain in 2010;[7] and Russia was
branded as a virtual "mafia state" according to the WikiLeaks cables.[34]

In 2009, Russian mafia groups had been said to reach over 50 countries and, in
2010, had up to 300,000 members.

Structure and composition

Bratva structure[edit]
Note that all these positions are not always official titles, but rather are
understood names for roles that the individual performs.

Pakhan is the Boss or Krestniy Otets or Vor or Papa or Avtoritet

"Godfather" and controls everything. The Pakhan controls four criminal cells
in the working unit through an intermediary called a "Brigadier."[36]

Two Spies watch over the action of the brigadiers to ensure loyalty and
none become too powerful. Sovietnik (Support Group) and Obshchak
(Security Group) Derzhatel obschaka the bookkeeper, who collects all
money from Brigadiers and bribes the government to Obshchak (money
mafia intended for use in the interests of the group). Could be Brigadier,
Pakhan, Autoritet.

Brigadier or Avtoritet ("Authority"), is like a captain in charge of a small

group of men, similar to Caporegime in Italian-American Mafia crime families
and Sicilian Mafia clans. He gives out jobs to Boyeviks ("warriors") and pays
tribute to Pakhan. He runs a crew which is called a Brigade (Bratva). A
Brigade is made up of 56 Pacanov or Brodyag.

Bratok or Pacan or Brodyaga literally "warrior" works for a Brigadier

having a special criminal activity to run, similar to soldiers in Italian-American
Mafia crime families andSicilian Mafia clans. A Boyevik is in charge of finding
new guys and paying tribute up to his Brigadier. Boyeviks also make up the
main strike force of a brigade (bratva).

Shestyorka is an "associate" to the organization also called the "six",

similar to associates in Italian-American Mafia crime families and Sicilian
Mafia clans. Is an errand boy for the organization and is the lowest rank in the
Russian Mafia. The sixes are assigned to some Avtorityets for support. They
also provide an intelligence for the upcoming "dielo" or on a certain target.
They usually stay out of the main actions, although there might be exceptions,
depending on circumstances. During a "delo" Shestyorkas perform security
functions standing on the look out (Shukher literally: danger). It is a
temporary position and an individual either making it into the Vor-world or
being cast aside. As they are earning their respect and trust in Bratva they
may be performing roles of the regular Boyeviks or Byki depending on the
necessities and patronage of their Brigadier or Avtorityet. Etymology of
'shestyorka' word comes from the lowest rank of 36 playing card deck sixes.

n the Russian Mafia, "Vor" (plural: Vory) (literally, "Thief") is an honorary title
denoting a made man. The honor of becoming a Vor is only given when the
recruit shows considerable leadership skills, personal ability, intellect and
charisma. A Pakhan or another high-ranking member of an organization can
decide if the recruit will receive such title. When you become a member of the
Vor-world you have to accept the code of the Vor v Zakone ("Thief within the
Law").[37][38]
Although Russian criminal groups vary in their structure, there have been
attempts to devise a model of how they work. One such model (possibly outdated
by now, as it is based on the old style of Soviet criminal enterprises) works out
like this:

1. Elite group led by a Pakhan who is involved in management,

organization and ideology. This is the highest group controls both support
group and security group.
2. Security group is led by one of his spies. His job is to make sure the
organization keeps running and also keeps the peace between the
organizations and other criminal groups and also paying off the right
people. This group works with the Elite group and is equal in power with
the Support groups. Is in charge of security and in intelligence.
3. Support group is led by one of his spies. His job is to watch over the
working unit collecting the money while supervising their criminal activities.
This group works with the elite group and is equal in power with the
Security group. They plan a specific crime for a specialized group or
choose who carries out the operation.
4. Working Unit There are four Brigadiers running a criminal activity in the
working unit. Each Brigade is controlled by a Brigadier. This is the lowest
group working with only the Support group. The group is involved in
burglars, thieves, prostitution, extortion, street gangs and other crimes.

Notable individual groups[edit]

Groups based in and around the City of Moscow:

Solntsevskaya Bratva: Led by Sergei "Mikhas" Mikhailov, it is Russia's

largest criminal group with about 5,000 members, and is named after
the Solntsevo District.[39][40]

Rodina (Motherland): Moscow based crime syndicate with international

influences, millionaire Natasha Suvorova was accused of being an important
member in a 2015 trial.

Lyuberetskaya Bratva (Russian: ) or Lyubery

(Russian: ): One of the largest criminal groups in late 1980s earlymid-1990s in the USSR. Based in (and originating from) Lyubertsy district of
Moscow.

The Izmaylovskaya gang: One of Russia's oldest modern gangs, it was

started in the mid- to late-1980s by Oleg Ivanov; it has around 200500
members in Moscow alone, and is named after the Izmaylovo District.[41]

The Orekhovskaya gang: Founded by Sergei "Sylvester" Timofeyev, this

group reached its height in Moscow in the 1990s. When Timofeyev died,
Sergei Butorin took his place. However, he was sentenced to jail for life in
2011.[42][43]

Groups based in other parts of Russia and the former Soviet Union:

The Dolgoprudnenskaya gang: Russia's second largest criminal group.

[40]

Originally from the City of Dolgoprudny.

The Grekov Gang: Named after Grecoff Bradlik, this group has been

known to dominate Saint Petersburg and has branches in Montreal, Canada;

the man most associated with them is Vladimir Kumarin.[41]

The Slonovskaya gang was one of the strongest criminal groups in CIS in
1990s. It was based in Ryazan. It had a long-term war with other criminal
groups of the city (Ayrapetovskaya, Kochetkovskie, etc.)

The Uralmash gang of Yekaterinburg.

The Chechen mafia is one of the largest ethnic organized crime groups
operating in the former Soviet Union next to established Russian mafia
groups.

The Georgian mafia is regarded as one of the biggest, powerful and

influential criminal networks in Europe, which has produced the biggest
number of "thieves in law" in all former USSR countries.

The Mkhedrioni was a paramilitary group involved in organised crime[citation

needed]

led by a Thief in law Jaba Ioseliani in Georgia in 1990s.

The city of Kazan was known for its gang culture, which later progressed
into more organised, mafia-esque groups. This was known as the Kazan
phenomenon.

Groups based in and around the The United States of America:

The Odessa Mafia: The most prominent and dominant Russian criminal
group operating in the US; its headquarters is in Brighton Beach.[4][5]

Armenian Power, or AP-13, is a California-based crime syndicate tied to

Russian and Armenian organised crime.

Groups based in other areas:

The Brothers' Circle: Headed by Temuri Mirzoyev, this multiethnic transnational group is "composed of leaders and senior members of
several Eurasian criminal groups largely based in countries of the former
Soviet Union but operating in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin
America."[44] In 2011, US President Barack Obama and his administration
named it one of four transnational organized crime groups that posed the
greatest threat to US national security, and sanctioned certain key members
and froze their assets.[45][46] A year later, he extended the national emergency
against them for another year.[47]

The Semion Mogilevich organization: Based in Budapest, Hungary and

headed by the crime boss of the same name, this group numbered
approximately 250 members as of 1996. Its business is often connected with

that of the Solntsevskaya Bratva and the Vyacheslav Ivankov Organization.

Aleksey Anatolyevich Lugovkov is the second-in-command, and Vitaly
Borisovich Savalovsky is the "underboss" to Mogilevich.[48]

Order of Ronova: An organization with ties to Russian and Italian

organized crime, based throughout Salt Lake City, Utah, Carson City, Nevada,
Tacoma, Washington, and Phoenix, Arizona. It has an estimate of 100 made
members, and 400 associates.

Gradinaru Bratva: A family started in Washington state, it is also known as

, which stands for Organized Russian Gentlemen. Usually hard to
spot, these gentlemen are fierce and have their own hierarchy.

The biggest organized crime groups

in the world
Its tough to go even a few months without seeing the
effects of organized crime on the economy and everyday
life. The most salient example these days is the rash of
thefts of credit card data from big-name retail chains like
Home Depot and Target.

While these threats are headline-grabbing and

particularly frightening because e-commerce is a
relatively new phenomenon and businesses and
consumers arent totally sure how to protect themselves
from hackers, its still a drop in the bucket in terms of
overall organized crime earnings.
A 2013 survey from Javelin Strategy and
Researchestimates that the annual total loss to
Americans due to identity theft was roughly $20 billion.
But much of those costs comes from efforts to prevent
identity theft or recover from its effects, rather than what
thieves earn from their crimes. Compare that to
estimates of pure revenue from other forms of organized
crime like the drug trade and human trafficking: the
Organization of American States estimates that the
revenue for cocaine sales in the U.S. hasreached $34
billion annually. When you add the market for other
illicit drugs and revenue generators like human
trafficking and extortion, it becomes clear that organized
crime is still making most of its money from its legacy
businesses, despite the fact that criminals are always
looking for new ways to make a buck.

So, who are the biggest organized crime gangs around

the world and how do they make their money? Organized
crime revenues are very difficult to estimate, as criminals
often spend a significant amount of time trying to hide
what they make. Also, organized crime is a loosely
defined concept. Anything from a vast drug smuggling
ring to a handful of car thieves can be classified as
organized crime groups, and the cohesiveness of
organized crime organizations around the world varies
widely. Some groups, like Japans Yakuza, are highly
organized and hierarchical, allowing economists and
crime fighters in Japan to attribute much higher revenue
totals to Yakuza groups than others around the world.
Here are the top five criminal gangs, ranked by revenue
estimates:
1. Solntsevskaya BratvaRevenue: $8.5 billion
Russian mafia groups sit on the other side of the
organizational spectrum from Yakuza. Their structure,
according to Frederico Varese, a professor of criminology
at the University of Oxford and an expert on
international organized crime, is highly decentralized.
The group is composed of 10 separate quasi-autonomous

brigades that operate more or less independently of

each other. The group does pool its resources, however,
and the money is overseen by a 12-person council that
meets regularly in different parts of the world, often
disguising their meetings as festive occasions, Varesi
says.
Its estimated that the group claims upwards of 9,000
members, and that its bread and butter is the drug trade
and human trafficking. Russian organized crime in
general is heavily involved in the heroin trade that
originates in Afghanistan: its estimated that Russia
consumes about 12% of the worlds heroin, while it
contains just 0.5% of the worlds population.
2. Yamaguchi GumiRevenue: $6.6 billion
The largest known gang in the world is called the
Yamaguchi Gumi, one of several groups collectively
referred to in Japan as Yakuza, a term that is roughly
equivalent to the American use of mafia. The
Yamaguchi Gumi make more money from drug
trafficking than any other source, according to Hiromitsu
Suganuma, Japans former national police chief. The

next two leading sources of revenue are gambling and

extortion, followed closely by dispute resolution.
The Yakuza date back hundreds of years, and according
to Dennis McCarthy, author of An Economic History of
Organized Crime, Yakuza groups are among the most
centralized in the world. While other East Asian gangs
like Chinese Triads, which are a loose conglomeration of
criminals bonded together mostly by familial relations,
Yakuza are bound together by elaborate hierarchies,
and members, once initiated, must subvert all other
allegiances in favor of the Yakuza. Even with the
Japanese government cracking down on Yakuza in recent
years, this centralized structure has made it easy to
attribute a massive amount of revenue to this single
gang.
3. CamorraRevenue: $4.9 billion
While the Italian-American mafia has been severely
weakened in recent decades by law enforcement, the
Italian mafia in the old country is still running strong.
Despite years of efforts from citizens, journalists, and
government officials, the local governments in Italy

remain linked to and protective of various mafia groups,

to the point where a 2013 study from the Universit
Cattolica and the Joint research Centre on Transnational
Crime estimated that mafia activities generate revenue of
$33 billion dollars, mostly divided among Italys four
major mafia gangs.
Camorra is the most successful of these groups, raking in
an estimated $4.9 billion per year on everything from
sexual exploitation, firearms trafficking, drugs,
counterfeiting, gambling usury and extortion,
according to the report. And Camorra has been at it a
long time. Based in Naples, the groups history dates
back to the 19th century, when it was formed initially as a
prison gang. As members were released, the group
flourished during the bloody political struggles in Italy
during the 1800s by offering protection services and as a
force for political organization among Italys poor.
4. NdranghetaRevenue: $4.5 billion
Based in the Calabria region of Italy, the Ndarangheta is
the countrys second largest mafia group by revenue.
While it is involved in many of the same illicit activities

as Camorra, Ndrangheta has made its name for itself by

building international ties with South American cocaine
dealers, and it controls much of the transatlantic drug
market that feeds Europe. It has also been expanding its
operations in the U.S. and has helped prop up the
Gambino and Bonnano crime families in New York. In
February, Italian and American police forces arrested
dozens of Ndrangheta and Gambino family members
and charged them with crimes related to the
transatlantic drug trade.
5. Sinaloa CartelRevenue $3 billion
Sianola is Mexicos largest drug cartel, one of several
gangs that has been terrorizing the Mexican population
as it serves as the middleman between South American
producers of illegal drugs and an unquenchable
American market. The White House Office of Drug
Control Policy estimates that Americans spend $100
billion on illegal drugs each year, and the RAND
Corporation says that about $6.5 billion of that reaches
Mexican cartels. With an estimated 60% market share,
Sinola cartel is raking in approximately $3 billion per
year.

Despite the fact that Sinaloas leader

was arrestedFebruary, the cartel seems to have avoided
the sort of bloodyand costlysuccession battle that has
plagued some groups when a leader is taken out of
commission.
An original version of this article mistakenly labeled the
Yamaguchi Gumis revenue at $80 billion. This mistake
was based on a mistranslation of Suganumas statement.

The Export Other Countries Would Rather

Do Without: The Russian Mafia
Russian officials began talking about diversifying the economy years before
the price of oil began tanking in 2014.
But theres one commodity that Moscow has done a great job of exporting to
the rest of the world since the early 1990s.
The trouble is, the rest of the world doesnt want it because its the Russian
mafia.

I began reading stories about organized-crime syndicates from the former

Soviet Union taking root in other countries in the mid-1990s.
Now the syndicates presence overseas is so pervasive particularly in rich
nations like the United States and Europe that not a month goes by when
you dont read a story about the havoc that gangs from the former Soviet
Union are wreaking.
Although the Russian mafia is the biggest overseas crime network from the
former Soviet Union, gangs from a number of other countries including
Ukraine, Armenia and Georgia have an overseas presence as well. So Ill
refer to the crime syndicates from places in the region besides Russia as CIS
mafia CIS for Commonwealth of Independent States.
Those who study overseas mafia say two key differences between CIS gangs
and, say, Sicilian gangs is that many CIS gangs get their marching orders from
crime bosses back home and critically important governments in their
homelands protect the gangs.
Western investigative journalists have written many stories about Russian
politicians and government officials being on mafia payrolls and
reciprocating by protecting the mobsters.
Thats why Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian intelligence officer whom
the Russians poisoned with radioactive polonium 210 in London in 2006,
coined the term mafia state to describe Russia.

One of the most outrageous signs of Moscows protection of mafia is its

refusal to extradite Russians to countries where they are wanted for
organized-crime activity.
Spanish prosecutors made international headlines a year ago by issuing arrest
warrants for 12 Russian officials they contend have helped the Russian mafia
in Spain pull off their crimes. All 12 were close to Russian President Vladimir
Putin, Western journalists noted.
At the top of the list were Vladislav Reznik, a member of parliament from
Putins United Russia Party; Nikolai Aulov, the deputy director of Russias
federal narcotics service; and Igor Sobelevsky, former deputy head of the
Investigative Committee, Russias FBI.
Spain spent a decade looking into the way the Russian mafia bought Spanish
property to launder money made illegally in Russia. It recently filed moneylaundering charges against a half dozen Russia mobsters living in Spain, with
expectations there will be more arrests.
Spain issued its arrest warrants for the 12 officials close to Putin on grounds
that they helped crime bosses in Russia make the illegal money that was
laundered in Spain.
Russian authorities reacted by calling the charges in the Spanish warrants
preposterous the typical Russian reaction when other countries accuse
Russian big shots of crimes. And, of course, Moscow refused to extradite the
officials to Spain.

If it was just Spain, the story of the Russian mafia could be dismissed as a
one-off. But it isnt just Spain.
Russian crime syndicates have become so entrenched in the United States
particularly in the New York area and south Florida that the popular
American cop drama Blue Bloods often features plots about police dueling
with Russian baddies.
Germany is so concerned about what it sees as the growing threat of the CIS
mafia on its soil that the head of its equivalent of the FBI took the unusual step
of discussing the matter publicly this month.
Holger Munch noted that Russian-Eurasian organized crime has been
expanding both in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.
One Russian mafia group alone has up to 40,000 members in Germany, he
said, and CIS mobsters account for 8 to 10 percent of Germanys over-all
prison population.
The Armenian mafias grip on the United States has surfaced in shocking
fashion with a series of mass arrests over the past five years.
In February of 2011 federal and state authorities arrested 70 members of the
Armenian Power crime syndicate on charges that included kidnapping,
extortion, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft, credit card fraud, marijuana
distribution, conducting illegal gambling operations, and conspiracy.

Most of the arrests were in Los Angeles, which has the worlds second-largest
Armenian diaspora, although some occurred in other cities.
The majority of the suspects were Armenians, not Armenian-Americans, lawenforcement officials noted.
Unfortunately, the kingpins of the Armenian mafia are in the homeland, not the
United States, authorities said in announcing the arrests.
Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny Breuer summed up the difficulty of
exterminating the Armenian mafia on American soil by saying that its tentacles
go beyond international borders, reaching all the way back to the former
Soviet bloc.
Underscoring the Armenian mafias continuing threat to the Los Angeles area,
the FBI and local law enforcement agencies have organized a Eurasian
Organized Crime Task Force to investigate the crimes of mobsters from
Armenia, Georgia and other countries in the neighborhood.
Its embarrassing to law-abiding citizens in the former Soviet Union that the
word mafia is the one of the first things that pops into the minds of a lot of
people whose countries have substantial populations of immigrants from the
Commonwealth of Independent States.

Russian mafia in popular culture

Film[edit]

In Little Odessa (1994), the Russian mafia of New York is the subject.

The Russian cult film Brother (1997) tells a story of a young mobster with a
strong sense of loyalty in the 1990s St. Petersburg.

The film Jungle 2 Jungle (1997) features a Russian mafia in New York City
run by Alexei Jovanovic (played by David Ogden Stiers).

In The Jackal (1997), a Russian mob boss hires the titular assassin to
avenge the death of his brother.

The film Rounders (1998) prominently features members of the Russian

mafia.

Brother 2 (2000), the sequel to Brother (1997), takes place in Moscow and
the United States.

In the film Training Day (2001), Denzel Washington's character Alonzo

Harris is trying to pay a ransom of money for his life after he assaulted a
member of the Russian Mafia in Las Vegas and took his money. His bosses
known as the "Three Wise Men" state how they know that he owes money to
the Russian Mafia and suggest that he leaves town. In an attempt to escape
via Los Angeles International Airport after being thwarted by Jake Hoyt,
Alonzo is killed by some Russian Mafia operatives in the airport parking lot
and the broadcast of his death over the news is hauntingly similar to the one
he used to taunt Jake.

The film Half Past Dead (2002) has a Russian car thief as the main
character.

The Russian film Tycoon (2002) shows the rise of a Russian oligarch from
the Gorbachev era in the late '80s, to absolute power in the Yeltsin era in the
'90s.

The Russian cult B-film Antikiller (2002) shows the mafia hierarchy of the
1990s rather faithfully. It spawned two sequels, none of which repeated the
success of the first film.

The Russian film Bimmer (2003) is road movie about four friends who get
into trouble with the law and flee Moscow in a black BMW. As the men drive
across the Russian expanse, they encounter corruption, violence, poverty,
and various situations characterizing the bleakness and challenges of smalltown life in post-Soviet Russia. A sequel was released in 2006.[citation needed]

The Russian film Dead Man's Bluff (2005) is a dark comedy portraying
young mobsters in the 1990s Nizhny Novgorod.

The film Eastern Promises (2007), subject of which is the Russian mafia in
London.

We Own the Night (2007) is centered around a manager of a Brighton

Beach night club, which is infact owned by the Russian mafia. Said manager
keeps clashing with his father and brother, who are both decorated NYPD
officers.

In Batman: Gotham Knight (2008), the Russian Mob is depicted as being

rivals of Sal Maroni's crime family and are led by The Russian (voiced
by Corey Burton).

The Russian film "Break loose" (2014) [1] (original title was ,
named after Lada Samara one of the characters is driving) depicts a personal
conflict between young OMON operatives and a local crime boss, few days
before New Year's Eve 1999-2000. Almost everybody wants to settle the
matter peacefully and let it pass, but a romantic interest of young OMON
operative draws them all beyond the point of no return. Unbeknownst to the

protagonists, president Yeltsin is preparing his resignation speech and Russia

is about to enter a new era.

The 2014 film adaptation of The Equalizer (which was directed by the
same director of Training Day and also starring Denzel Washington) features
the Russian mafia as the primary antagonists where they were led by Vladimir
Pushkin (played by Vladimir Kulich).

Our Kind of Traitor (2016) is a British spy thriller film adapted from John le
Carr's novel of the same name.

Games[edit]

The Russian mafia appears in multiple Grand Theft Auto games:

The Russian mafia appears in Grand Theft Auto 2 (1999).

Also in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) one of the missions
involves Big Smoke taking CJ down to a Hotel in Los Santos where they
meet up with a group of Russian mobsters.

In the Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) video game, the main

protagonist is allied with and later rivals against a Russian mafia gang.

Antikiller is a licensed PC game based on the eponymous gangster movie.

[2]

It came out in 2005 (Russian market) and 2007 (international market),

respectively.[3]

The indie game Hotline Miami (2012) features the Russian mafia as the
main antagonists.

In the espionage RPG Alpha Protocol, the protagonist must navigate a

conflict between two rival Moscow organized crime groups, one of which is
allied with the corruptdefense contractor the protagonist opposes.

Literature[edit]

A 1995 novel "No time for Heroes" by Brian Freemantle features a

conspiracy by Russian mafia.

Since 1998, Russian publishing house "Eksmo" has been printing crime
novels under the series "I am a thief by law" (- ).

"Our Kind of Traitor", a 2010 novel by John le Carr.

In 2013, Alexei Sherstobitov wrote an autobiography called "The

Liquidator" (), detailing his life as a hitman for the Russian
mafia.

Manga and anime[edit]

The Japanese manga and anime series Black Lagoon prominently

features the Hotel Moscow which is a branch of the Russian mafia that
operates in the Thailand city of Roanapur.

Television[edit]

The Solntsevskaya Bratva has a recurring role in the CW TV

series Arrow. Oliver Queen has contacts in the organization who he uses to
locate criminals.

The popular Russian TV mini-series Brigada, aired in 2002, depicted a

group of underdogs rising the crime ladder to become oligarchs in the
1990s Moscow.

The TV series Gotham features Russian mafia family formerly allied to

Sicilian gangster Carmine Falcone. They later turns against him with the
alliance of Fish Mooney and her gang. The Russian mafia was first led by
Nikolai (played by Jeremy Davidson) until he was killed by Oswald Cobblepot

during a raid orchestrated by rival Italian Mob boss Sal Maroni. In the episode
"Harvey Dent," the rest of the Russian mafia was led by Gregor Kasyanov
where they spring explosives expert Ian Hargrove from a prison transport to
construct bombs for them. The mobsters target a cache of Falcone's money,
but are stopped by the police. During a standoff with the Gotham City Police
Department, Gregor and some of the Russian mafia operatives are nearly
killed by a bomb that Butch Gilzean set off on Fish Mooney's behalf in order
to destroy the money and hurt Falcone.

The final episodes of the Law & Order Season 9 (199899) center around
the Russian mafia in Manhattan and their attempts to sabotage prosecution.

In the Netflix prison seriesOrange Is the New Black, Galina "Red"

Reznikova (played by Kate Mulgrew) is in the prison for her involvement with
the Russian mafia in Queens.

In the HBO Series "Oz", the Russian mafia was represented by JewishRussian Mafia member Nikolai Stanislofsky and by Cossack hitman Yuri
Kosygin. Kosygin is described in the show as "the most ruthless hitman in
Little Odessa".

The FX series Sons of Anarchy portrays illegal gun trading with the
Russian Mob.

In The Sopranos, there were many references and interactions with the
Russian mafia.