FBIS3-38878
"drweu027_h_94004"
FBIS-WEU-94-027
Document Type:Daily Report
9 Feb 1994
GERMANY
Russian Mafia Reportedly Increasing Activities
AU0902145394 Berlin DIE WELT in German 9 Feb 94 p 2
AU0902145394
Berlin DIE WELT
Language: German
Article Type:BFN
[Peter Scherer report: "Network Of Russian Mafia Getting
Tighter"]
[Text] Frankfurt -- The Russian Mafia has got large parts
of Germany in its stranglehold. Beside Berlin -- the
traditional center of East European criminal organizations --
Munich, Cologne, and Dusseldorf have become new centers of these
criminal groups. Security authorities report that residents
based in the Bavarian capital operate cartels in Berlin,
receiving stolen goods, dealing in drugs, and smuggling antiques.
The key figure of the "Munich Russians" was for a long time
a
"businessman" whom police considered to be especially dangerous
and brutal. His criminal life came to a mysterious end, with 30
knife wounds in a parking lot. The man, who had numerous
contacts with Russian immigrants in Berlin, the United States
(Odessa Group, New York), Israel, Canada, and Poland, is said to
have become a victim of the Italian Mafia in a dispute over drug
supplies.
The authorities on the Rhine have been quite successful in
their investigations. In a major investigation into exiled
Russian suspects in the Cologne/Dusseldorf area, carried out
under the code name "little flower," police could prove
"business contacts" with 31 countries. But still, contact and
information centers for organized Russian crime continue to
exist in the area. The "governors" of the Russian Mafia are
said to have excellent connections with politicians, business
people, and various criminal groups in the CIS states.
German security authorities self-critically admit that the
group of exiled Russian business people in particular has
managed to establish "very complex networks of companies,
irrespective of official institutions." They have close
contacts with groups in the CIS, which operate on the "Italian
example" there. According to Russian authorities, there are at
least 5,000 groups on the territory of the former Soviet Union
that are involved in organized crime. These groups have links
to syndicates in the United States, Israel, Belgium, Poland, and
Austria.
Police say that exiled Russian criminals operating from
Germany use their international business structures and their
"means of operating" -- joint-venture companies -- to commit
"well-planned crimes of considerable impact." This includes
drug dealing, the production and distribution of counterfeit
money, the smuggling of gold and icons, fraud, and the forgery
of documents. The production of evidence is, however, proving
extremely difficult.