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.