Ex-communist thugs find home in Slovakia's mob

Seattle Times ^ | January 2, 2009 | Laurie Goering

[Tailgunner Joe]

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — When communist rule collapsed in Central Europe in 1989, taking with it the fat salaries the Soviets once paid to their elite athletes, the thick-necked wrestlers and karate stars of Slovakia began looking for a new line of work.

They settled on a growth industry where a steroid-fueled physique was an advantage: the emerging Slovakian mafia.

Nearly 20 years later, Slovakia's mob has become an important player in nearly every aspect of Slovakian life. Mob figures who once walked around town with baseball bats extorting money from bar owners now own the bars themselves.

Mobsters have taken over security firms, invested in Bratislava's booming real-estate market and bought up restaurants and nightclubs, security experts say. When traffic gets bad in the capital, black Mercedes SUVs or fat-wheeled motorcycles — the transport of choice of the Slovakian mafia — accelerate onto the sidewalk and speed away, unmolested by the city's traffic police.

Slovakia's mob mafia may not be as big or brutal as the mobs that have taken hold in other Central European nations such as Albania or Bulgaria, but it is just as entrenched and unavoidable.

"The mafia are becoming more self-confident during these times," said Jan Marusinec, an economic-policy analyst with Mesa 10, a social and economic policy group. A series of firings, retirements and layoffs among government mafia hunters since the country's last change of government in 2006 has reduced pressure on mobsters, he and others said.

Mobsters, once surprised and arrested during raids, now are found "sitting on a couch with their feet up and their (desk) drawers open" when police arrive, charged Tom Nicholson, a longtime mob reporter with SME, one of Slovakia's leading newspapers. "Information is getting out."

[2banana]

Nearly 20 years later, Slovakia's mob has become an important player in nearly every aspect of Slovakian life.

Slovakia has done alot of things right. A low flat tax. Low business taxes. Business (especially car manufactures) are flocking there. Unemployment is way down. Too bad that they can't control organized criminals.

[muawiyah]

Sounds like New Chicago (a popular theme in Sci Fi over the years).

[BerryDingle]

Slovakia has done alot of things right. A low flat tax. Low business taxes. Business (especially car manufactures) are flocking there. Unemployment is way down.

Maybe the mafia is controlling the government.

[rogue yam]

Slovakia ping.