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"With Missiles or Without?"

"With Missiles or Without?"
by Dr. Christina J. Johns
Law, Power and Justice Syndicate

June 15, 2001

When The Godfather came out, we all thought of organized crime, or the Mafia, as Sicilian. Later on, the Colombians in Medellin and Cali came to the forefront of public attention as the most dangerous and ambitious organized crime groups. Now, there are so many groups it’s not possible to stereotype organized crime as easily. Mexican, Jamaican and Asian organized crime groups have joined the fray, and with the fall of the Berlin Wall, perhaps the most interesting of the organized crime groups, the Russian mafia, has become a prominent player.

I am not an expert on organized crime, or what one of my colleagues calls "traditional organized crime." I usually investigate "non-traditional organized crime" or the kind of organized crime that goes on within governments and is committed by governments themselves, such as the systematic plundering of some underdeveloped nations. But, recent articles about Russian organized crime groups has attracted my interest.

The disintegration of centralized Soviet Government was followed rapidly by the rise of new and very proficient organized crime groups. Some of these groups existed before the fall of the Soviet government, but after the fall, weak government control over society (the sine qua non of organized crime) created an even more fertile field in which all crime, and especially organized crime developed..

Experts now consider Russian organized crime as among the most sophisticated and dangerous of the organized crime groups. There are several interesting reasons for this.

While other groups struggle to transform their operations into technologically and methodologically up-to-date enterprises, the Russian organized crime groups are way ahead of the game. Before the fall of centralized government, the primary target of Russian organized crime was the Soviet government. So, organized criminal groups were well accustomed to operating complex crime scams against large organizations. This is a very lucrative form of criminal activity in a highly developed, rapidly changing world economy.

In addition, after the fall of the Soviet government, many educated professional people, without jobs or possibilities, turned to criminal behavior. This has produced a very sophisticated workforce for the Russian Mafia.

Because the Soviet Union was so ethnically diverse, organized crime groups that existed before the fall, were used to working in a multi-ethnic environment. Consequently, these guys had no problems forming alliances with other organized crime groups internationally, and did not just confine their enterprises to associations of Russians. There were fewer barriers to cooperation with different ethnically-organized crime groups.

In addition, because some government resources fell into private hands, the Russians had some pretty interesting things to sell. One of the primary fears of law enforcement is that missiles and nuclear devices, previously owned by the Soviet government will be increasingly sold off to private individuals and "rogue" states.

Investigative journalists have documented one attempt by the Colombian mafia to buy a submarine. A middle-man (also serving as an informant for a U.S. government agency) was contacted by representatives of the Colombian mafia and asked if he could get a submarine. "Are you kidding?" he responded, considering this to be an impossibility.

But, he decided to try anyway. He phoned his contact with the Russian mafia. "I want to buy a submarine." He said, hoping for the best.

"With missiles or without?" Was the reply.

Had this transaction not been disrupted by the government, the sale would have gone through to the tune of several million dollars.

The new Mafias, such as the Russian mafia, are also very different from the traditional Sicilian/Italian mafia familiar to the FBI and other law enforcement groups. For one, they don’t have a traditional hierarchical structure. With these new Mafias, groups come together and do a particular job, and then disburse, making them harder to prosecute and even find. Many also work with a cell system. Cells of people who do not even know each other are put together for a particular job and then break up. If one is caught, s/he can seldom identify the others even if s/he wants to.

The new mafias do not respect the traditional Italian mafia prohibition on killing family members. They are deadlier and more ruthless. And, they seem not to have learned some of the things that the traditional mafia found out through long experience i.e., killing journalists and political figures attracts way too much attention.

Especially with the increasing complexity and prevalence of computer crimes, the Russian organized crime groups will be fascinating to watch in the coming years.

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