FBIS4-43797 "drweu120_a_94005"
FBIS-WEU-94-120 Daily Report 19 Jun 1994
AUSTRIA

Russian Mafia Reportedly Expands Activities

Russian Mafia Reportedly Expands Activities AU1906190194 Vienna KURIER in German 19 Jun 94 pp 4-5 AU1906190194 Vienna KURIER German BFN [Report by Peter Grolig and Gerald Reischl: "The Red Godfathers Are Reaching Out to the West"] [Excerpts] He called himself Yuriy Chekin a.k.a. Marek Lipskiy a.k.a Dmitriy Beretsine and lived in Vienna's Erdbergstrasse -- as did his five Russian compatriots, who used a total of 11 different names. Just when they came to Austria is unclear. In April 1994 they were arrested during an attempted break-in. When their apartment was searched, police found a heap of passports and 260,000 tear-gas sprays. The officials saw this as an indication that the eastern mafia is behind this gang. The leaders are unknown. The lawyer was paid by "friends" -- business partners and relatives, who have been in Austria for some time. "The background is unclear," says a Viennese lawyer who wants to remain anonymous. "I must remain anonymous out of caution. One never knows who might be behind them." In 1993 he involuntarily became an expert on the "Russian mafia." "A CIS citizen recommended me when he was in detention awaiting trial. Now I get many such cases." Over the past months he has had 10 of them. Have they been won? "So far I have not had a trial." Austria has become the hub of the eastern mafia: Drug dealers from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, car thieves from Poland and Ukraine, blackmailers --demanding protection money--from Moscow and Turkey, and money launderers from China. In 1993 125,000 crimes were credited to criminals from mafia circles. The Interior Ministry avoids the term mafia and speaks of "organized crime." "We do not have any concrete figures," Michael Sika, director general of public security, admits. "We assume that the proportion of organized crime is 25 to 30 percent of all crimes." Three years ago estimates were at 20 percent. According to forecasts by experts, by the end of the century one out of two crimes will be committed by a gang member. The majority are car thefts. In 1993, 2,998 cars were stolen. Most of them disappear to East Europe. The mafia is marching toward Austria -- above all from the former USSR. Freedom of travel has opened up previously unimaginable opportunities. In the former Soviet Union there are 5,000 gangs with a total of about 3 million members. In 1991 alone 225,000 state employees were sentenced for embezzlement there. A total of 20,000 policemen were proved to be cooperating with the mafia -- the mafia which is now reaching out toward the West. The Austrian Embassy in Moscow approves 400 to 500 applications for visas per day. "Two-thirds are businessmen," Consul Vjekoslav Freisitzer says. In order to be permitted to travel to Austria, one needs the invitation of a company operating in Austria. "These are often invitations issued as a favor. In the case of many companies one does not know who is behind them," Freisitzer says. There are strict checks. Between 10 and 30 CIS citizens per month are found to have forged invitations. By the end of May 1994 the Interior Ministry had issued 1,008 work permits for CIS citizens; in total, about 7,500 people from the former USSR currently live in Austria. "So far this year, 2,000 residence permits have been issued," Peter Wiedermann, head of the immigration police, says. However, there are hardly any problems with CIS citizens. Only 59 have applied for asylum this year. Nevertheless, Michael Sika assumes that eight to 10 companies per month are founded under the patronage of the "red godfathers" in Austria. Rumors that the Naschmarkt [large, open-air market in Vienna] in Vienna is also controlled by the Russian mafia have not been confirmed. Last year the profile of its stand owners was studied: The 167 stands belong to Russians, Turks, and Kurds, some of whom have been nationalized. They could be blackmailed by former compatriots. The Federal Office of Criminal Investigations [BKA] in Wiesbaden has studied organized crime in East Europe. Since 1 September 1991 a project has been under way to evaluate all information about groups of criminals from the former USSR. "Four gangs are active in Germany," BKA spokesman Thomas Rindsfuesser says. In Austria the situation is similar, he notes. The first group, the exile Russians, are active in the sphere of economic crime. "Enormous amounts of goods are transferred via joint ventures, some of them illegally," Rindsfuesser says. "Thus, new routes for the delivery of drugs have also been developed." However, exile Russians are also often victims of blackmail. The second group are criminals from the former autonomous Chechen-Ingush republic, hierarchically organized gangs. Rindsfuesser: "A council of elders, which consists of the gang leaders, divides the areas and makes sure that conflicts among groups are avoided." The Chechens' main source of revenues is protection money. The Dolgoprudnenskaya come from the boxing world. "This gang could organize the red-light scene in the future," Rindsfuesser says. These mafiosi, who offer protection to the expatriate Russians, come from Georgia. [passage omitted] "Austria is used by the Russian mafia for financial operations. It is also used by the Georgians, and by the Chechens. So far, there have been no excesses and attempts to take over by force, as there have been in Budapest, Prague, and Berlin," Josef Dick, an Interior Ministry official, stresses. Austria is the starting point for financial transactions and large-scale property crimes. On the occasion of a meeting in Vienna, the United States estimates the global turnover of illegal financial operationa at $1 billion per day. The majority of the money comes from the former USSR. "An unimaginable hotbed of crisis," says Walter Pretzner, head of the "Task Force for Combating Organized Crime" (EDOK) in the Interior Ministry. The madness: Billions are taken out of the country by the "red godfathers" and invested in West European industries. At the same time, Western countries are spending large amounts on aid for the East. After all, the hotbed of unrest is nuclear power. At the moment, the security authorities cannot yet reach those who are benefiting from this. However: "The time will come," the EDOK head says with optimism. "We are only just beginning our counterstrategies." There are already special antimafia groups in the eight criminal departments of the provincial police. Soon special units are to be established also in all 14 federal police directorates -- a total of 23 such units. There hass already been some success: This year the EDOK registration office, to which monetary transactions involving more than 200,000 schillings must be reported, has already examined 149 cases in which money laundering was suspected. A total of 215 million schillings were "frozen" at the order of the judiciary.