Posted on 04/29/2002 3:49:03 PM PDT by Ivan the Terrible
While U.S. law enforcement agencies are still busy searching for "sleepers" and other international terrorists in the U.S. and elsewhere, Russian mobs are increasingly engaged in criminal activity all across America.
According to media reports, late last month the body of a woman was pulled from a mountain lake, the fifth murder victim recovered in an investigation of a Los Angeles-area Russian mob. California authorities found the body in 220 feet of water under a bridge straddling New Melones Lake.
Four other bodies were found separately in the same lake between October and March. Investigators identified a body found last fall in the 12,500-acre reservoir as that of Los Angeles-area real estate developer Meyer Muscatel, 58.
Authorities said all five victims were abducted, blackmailed and killed by Russian organized crime figures, and they have arrested six Russian men as suspects. Although federal authorities believe that violence is rare among America's Russian mobs, the latest developments in the Los Angeles area clearly demonstrate that the threat from the Russian Mafia is growing.
Using unlimited funds from Russia, where mobsters dominate economic, social and political life, the most powerful Russian criminal syndicates have already established themselves in many American states. They also cooperate closely with Colombian, Mexican and other Latin American crime syndicates and are making fortunes in international drug trafficking, illegal weapons sales, money laundering, extortion, counterfeiting, and other traditional forms of criminal activity.
Currently, Russian mobs are very aggressive in penetrating some of the most profitable small and mid-size private American businesses and are creating their own criminal enterprises. According to law enforcement agencies, hundreds of thousands of small U.S. enterprises are already under the control of Russian criminals, connected by blood, religion, ethnicity or expediency. They are a growing presence in the burgeoning Eastern European immigrant communities in New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Portland, Chicago and other areas.
Most Russian-speaking criminals are of different origins but are united as members of the Russian or "Red" Mafia. They are mostly persons who grew up in a society where scamming the government was a way of survival, and they are deeply involved in fraud and deceit in the U.S. Recently, among the most popular scams for Russian mobsters in America have been gas-tax frauds, in which dummy companies sell fuel below market value and never pay the fuel excise taxes.
Other favorite activities of Russian criminals are insurance scams, often involving faked auto accidents, real estates frauds, money laundering, and other such crimes. For example, a Medicaid scam in Los Angeles in 1996 brought in millions before authorities broke it up. One group of Russian criminals recently scammed a small fortune in nickel from California's recycling program.
According the U.S. law enforcement expert estimations, less sophisticated Russian-speaking criminals resort to old-fashioned shakedowns such as demanding protection money in the ethnic neighborhoods of Hollywood, New York's Brighton Beach, Florida's Fort Lauderdale and other areas.
Some groups of Russian mobsters are using false documents to smuggle East European women into the country, then setting them up as prostitutes. Four of the five victims recovered recently from New Melones Lake were from the Russian immigrant community in Los Angeles, which numbers almost 500,000.
However, if Russian immigrants are the major targets for some organizations of the "Red Mafia," it doesn't mean that these mobsters hesitate to resort to violent crimes against Americans in their local areas. The number of victims of organized Russian gangsters is growing, and if law enforcement agencies don't stop this development, it will soon dangerously influence social, economic and political life throughout America.
Most Russian-speaking criminals are of different origins but are united as members of the Russian or "Red" Mafia.
They are mostly persons who grew up in a society where scamming the government was a way of survival, and they are deeply involved in fraud and deceit in the U.S.
LOL!! This article could be describing Jesse Jackson, also. Just change the title to 'black mafia'.
Just like Meyer Lansky except they can immigrate by Jet instead of Boat now. Much Faster.
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