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.